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GREVE Al' LANQ< IN 



Page 70. 



the 



ATLANTIC ISLANDS 



AS RESORTS OF 



HEALTH AND PLEASURE 



By S. G. W. BENJAMIN, 

AUTHOR OF "CONTEMPORARY ART IN EUROPE," ETC. 



ILLUSTRATED. 



4 

^ 

^ 



'•Summer isles of Eden lying in dark-purple spheres of sea." — Te.vsysox. 

"0, health ! health ! — the blessing of the rich, the riches of the poor ! who can buy thee at too dear ;i 
rate, since there is no enjoying this world without thee. "— Jonson. 





NEW YORK: 

HARPER k BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN SQUARE. 

1878. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by 

HARPER & BROTHERS, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



- 



PREFACE. 



THIS work on the islands of the North Atlantic has been prepared 
with the hope that it will meet a growing want of the travelling 
public. These islands, for the best reasons in the world, are becoming 
more and more the resort of the invalid and the pleasure-seeker. But, up 
to this time, no guide-book has existed giving a comparative and compre- 
hensive statement of the advantages of such islands, whether as summer 
or winter resorts. 

No islands are included in these pages except such as are free from the 
visitations of yellow fever or persistent malarial and zymotic epidemics. 
Great care has also been taken to obtain the fullest and most correct san- 
itary statistics on the subject, in which the author has perhaps been assisted 
by his interest in medical topics. Official documents and data have been 
consulted, and the opinions of the ablest resident physicians have been 
received and compared. And in every instance, regarding all points of 
information, the writer has gathered his facts from careful personal obser- 
vation or from the highest authorities. 

As all of these islands have been recently visited by him, he has thought 
tit to leave the description of them in their original narrative form, as he 
saw all the important places mentioned, while the book may thus perhaps 
be rendered more attractive to the general reader by the introduction of 
incidents of travel and adventure. 

The Appendix, although placed at the end, really contains the pith 
of the book. It is intended to convey copious information regarding 
the attractions of each island for both invalids and sportsmen, sanitary 



8 PREFACE. 

statistics, the means fur reaching these resorts, and the hotels and ex- 
penses of living. The islands are there distinctly classified in the order 
of their respective advantages, without bias or prejudice. It may be that 
one or two well-known resorts receive less indiscriminate praise than 
lias hitherto been awarded to them, while other less known resorts come 
in for a share of credit that may surprise some who are ignorant of their 
merits. But the writer can honestly say that he has stated the facts as 
they appeared to the best of his judgment. 

The author avails himself of this opportunity to express his hearty 
acknowledgments for the genial hospitality, the many kind attentions, and 
the uniform courtesy he has met in his rambles among the Atlantic Isles, 
whether from the officials of the local governments, the consuls of the 
United States and other countries, or from private citizens. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. Page 

The Bahamas 1 ° 

CHAPTER II. 
The Azores •'*' 

CHAPTER III. 
The Channel Islands 5 ' 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Magdalen Islands , ' ° 

CHAPTER V. 
Madeira ■ • • ^4 

CHAPTER VI. 

t< 121 

I ENERIFFE x & ' 

CHAPTER VII. 
Newfoundland 1- *G 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Bermudas 1G1 

CHAPTER IX. 
Belleisle-en-Mer 1 '9 



10 CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER X. p agk 

Prince Edward Island 188 

CHAPTER XL 

Isle-; of Shoals 205 

CHAPTER XII. 

Cape Breton Island 222 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Isle of Wight 234 



APPENDIX 257 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 

Greve au Lan^on Frontispiece. 

Hopetown Harbor, Abaco 13 

Government House 15 

Old Gunnybags 16 

Sponge Yard 17 

Entrance to Port Nassau 19 

Blackbeard, the Pirate 20 

Fort Fincastle, Nassau 21 

The Hermitage, Country-seat of Lord 

dunmore, at nassau 21 

Royal Victoria Hotel 23 

Public Library, Nassau 24 

Silk-cotton-tree, Nassau 26 

Dunmore Town 28 

Glass Windows 30 

Street in Nassau 32 

Azores, or Western Isles 34 

Flores Cart and Peasant Hut 37 

Pico, from Fayal 38 

Pico Peak, from Fayal 39 

The Pico Ferry 41 

Market-day in Fayal 47 

Hospital of Villafranca do Campo 49 

Jetty of Ponta Delgada, St. Michael. 51 

A St. Michael Wagon 53 

The Channel Islands 57 

St. Peter's Port, Guernsey 58 

Monument to Prince Albert, Guernsey 59 
Market-place at St. Peter's Port, 

Guernsey 60 

Children Begging for "Doubles" 61 

Dolmen and Martello Tower, Guernsey 62 
Hauteville, Victor Hugos late Resi- 
dence in Guernsey 64 

Guard -house described in "Toilers 

of the Sea" 65 

The Corbiere and Light-house, Jersey G(i 

Mount Orgueil Castle, Jersey 68 

The Pinnacle, Jersey 69 



Page 

St. Brelade's Church, Jersey 70 

Vraicking 71 

Creux Harbor, Sark 72 

Entrance to the Creux Landing-flack, 

Sark ,. 73 

The Autelets, Sark 74 

Creux du Dkrrible, Sark 75 

Natural Bridge, Pont-du-Moulin, Sark 76 

Seigneur's House, Sark 77 

Sand Dunes and Wrecks between Am- 
herst and Grindstone Islands 79 

The Magdalen Islands 80 

Amherst, looking toward Demoiselle 

Hill 81 

Landing on Entry Island 82 

Old Man and Old Woman 83 

Dragging the Hull of a Schooner to 

the Beach 85 

Through the Surf 86 

Port and Village of Etang du Nord, 

Grindstone Island 87 

Cap au Meule and Wreck, Grindstone 

Island 89 

Part of Cape Alright 90 

The Serene Joseph 91 

The Madeira Islands 95 

Funchal Harbor and Brazen Head... 96 

Loo Rock 97 

The Sledge-hack 99 

The Mountain Sled 101 

Church of Nostra Senhora do Monte 103 

Hammock-riding in Madeira 107 

Village of Cama do Lobos , 109 

A Threshing-floor 110 

A Grist-mill Ill 

Peasants' Hut and Peasants 115 

Penha D'Aguia 117 

Plaza de la Constitucion, Santa Cruz 121 
The Canary Islands 122 



12 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 

Ten eriffe 123 

Spanish Senorita 124 

Tmc Postigo 125 

Milk-venders 126 

Camels \m> Cochineal-carriers 128 

Group of Chdzas, or Huts, near La- 

GUNA 129 

Teneriffe Costume 130 

Guanche Mummies at Tacaronte 131 

City of San Juan, Orotava 133 

Dragon-tree as it was 134 

Botanic Gardens, Orotava 135 

View of the Peak from Orotava 137 

Peasant Spinning 138 

A Peasant-woman of Icod 139 

Peak of Teneriffe, as seen on ap- 
proaching the Large Crater 141 

Costume of Peasant 144 

The Spout off Cape Brotle 147 

Entrance to the Harbor of St. Johns 149 

Ascent to a "Flake" 151 

Cape Rat. — Telegraph House 153 

St. Johns, from Signal Hill 155 

Cleaning Fish 157 

The Bermudas 161 

cupa and the bahama islands 162 

Hamilton, Bermudas 163 

Floating-dock 165 

Trinity Church, Hamilton... 166 

Moore's Calabash-tree 167 

View from Light-house 168 

Cottage and Garden in Hamilton 169 

A Street Scene in Hamilton — The 

Wharf 170 

A Street Scene in St. George's 171 

The Devil's Hole 172 

Caves on the Coast 173 

Ravine on South Shore, Bermuda 174 

Pitts Bay 175 

India-rubber-tree 177 

Fisil-WOMEN OF THE MORBIHAN 179 

Cesar's Table, or Table of the Mer- 
chants, LOCMARIAQUEK 180 

Le Palais, Belleisle 182 

Peasant-girl, Belleisle 186 

Sambro' Light. — Entrance to Halifax 

Harbor 188 

Entrance to Strait of Canso 189 

Halifax, from the Citadel 190 

Light - house. — Entrance to Pictou 

Port 191 

Government House, Charlottetown... 192 
Methodist Church and Part of Char- 
lottetown — Hast River in the Dis- 
tance 193 



Pack. 

Avenue leading to Government House 194 

Market Building, Charlottetown 195 

Carrying the Mails across Northum- 
berland Strait in Winter 197 

Scene^on Hunter River 198 

Fish -house and Stage, and Fishing- 
boats, Rustico 199 

Fishing -boats beating into Rustico 
Harbor, between the Bar and the 
Spit: Bathing -house in the Fore- 
ground 200 

Fishing Party 201 

Shag and Mingo Rocks, Duck Island. 205 

Isles of Shoals 206 

Whale's-back Light 208 

Duck Island, from Appledore 210 

Laighton's Grave 211 

South-east End of Appledore, look- 
ing South 212 

Haley's Dock and Homestead 213 

Ledge of Rocks, Haley"s Island 214 

Smutty^ Nose 215 

Old Church, Star Island 216 

Captain John Smith's Monument, Star 

Island 217 

Gorge, Star Island 218 

White Island Light 218 

Cliffs, White Island 219 

Covered Walk and Light-house, White 

Island 220 

Londoner, from Star Island 221 

Fishermen Cruising 223 

Tall Fishing 225 

Riding out a North-easter 227 

The Micmac Indians 228 

One of the Fisherman's Perils 229 

Taking a Sight 232 

Isle of Wight 234 

Ryde 235 

Grave of the Young Cottager 237 

Lec.ii Richmond 238 

John Wilkes 239 

Shanklin Chine 240 

Ventnor, from Pulpit Rock 241 

The Natural Enemy 243 

bonciiurch 244 

The Well of St. Lawrence 245 

A Crab-nitoner 246 

Black Gang Chine 247 

Faiungford, the Residence of Alfred 

Tennyson 248 

Scratchell's Bay 249 

Tomb of the Princess Elizabeth 251 

Carisbrooke Castle 252 

Osborne 254 




THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS; 

AS RESORTS FOR 

HEALTH AND PLEASURE. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE BAHAMAS. 



WE had been heading southward in the steamer City of Merida for 
two days, followed by raw northerly winds, when the wind suddenly 
shifted to the south. The change in the temperature was magical. Over- 
coats were thrown aside at once, and all hands were called aft to spread 
the awning; the waves went down, the clouds disappeared, the cold gray 
color of the sea turned to azure, and every breath of the " sweet south " 
seemed to sing a welcome to enchanted isles where reigns perpetual sum- 
mer. On the fourth night we passed the Elbow Light, on the north-east 
angle of Abaco, and sighted Hole-in-the-Wall at midnight. Many of us 
also now saw for the first time the Southern Cross gleaming over the bow, 
while the North Star and the Bear were still visible on the quarter. At 
dawn a long, low line of green keys lay abeam, and soon we saw the 
graceful groves of cocoa and the spires of Nassau gleaming in the sun, 
now rising in a cloudless sky. The vessel drew too much water to go 
over the bar, and therefore came to anchor outside of the light-house at 



14 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

the western end of Hog Island, a beautiful coral islet three miles long, 
which, by furnishing a breakwater cheaper and safer than that of Plym- 
outh or Cherbourg, enables Nassau to claim the best port in the Baha- 
mas. Boats of all descriptions darted from the shore, manned by negroes, 
presenting sometimes a diverting variety of raggedness in the slender 
wardrobe prescribed by conventional propriety rather than by any need 
of protection against the weather. As we rowed in over the bar the first 
object to attract our attention was the absolute clearness of the water — 
hyaline, as a poet might truthfully call it — which enables the eye to see 
everything on the white sand bottom, and the vivid, .almost dazzling, green 
hue of the surface, mottled with varied tints of the same color, giving 
exactly the appearance of polished malachite. On landing, amidst a hub- 
bub of negroes, we found the streets of almost snowy whiteness, intensified 
by the glare of the white walls, so that straw hats and shade umbrellas 
were at once called into requisition. One very soon gets accustomed to 
this, however, and the effect could be greatly modified if the worthy citi- 
zens would only content themselves with lower walls around their gardens, 
or would color those they have with some sober gray. This is evident 
when one rides out beyond the city, where the roads are of precisely the 
same character, but much more tolerable, because lined with verdure in- 
stead of staring white walls. 

It w T as a charming transition from the glare of the streets to the cool, 
spacious verandas of the Royal Victoria Hotel, which occupies noble 
grounds on an elevated position commanding a superb prospect over the 
city, the harbor, and the ocean beyond ; and a breakfast of turtle steak, 
chocolate, and tropical fruits freshly plucked, reminded us again that for 
a while at least we were free from the furnace-heated prison-houses of the 
North, and the icy, capricious, penetrating winds of our Northern spring, 
if it is not a misnomer to call it spring. 

Nassau is not only the chief town of the island of New Providence, but 
also the capital of the Bahamas. There the Legislature meets and the 
governor resides. The Government House is pleasantly situated, and the 
approach to it is appropriately adorned by a colossal statue of Christopher 
Columbus. The Legislature is elected once in seven years, and generally 
includes several colored members. The black population largely predomi- 
nates, for not only did the early settlers own slaves, but many cargoes of 
captured slavers were taken to Nassau and left there to shift for them- 
selves. The aboriginal race of the Bahamas is now entirely extinct. The 
negroes are generally tall and well formed, and very civil in their de- 
meanor, and great crimes are uncommon among them. Theft and licen- 



THE BAHAMAS. 



15 



tiousness are their chief " irregularities." It is creditable to the people 
that the spacious and handsome prison recently constructed at high cost 
is half empty, which gave the jailer a curious uneasiness, because, as he 
said to me, he had a piece of road-mending to be done in the broiling 
sun of mid-day, and the number of criminals under his charge was not 
equal to completing it within a given time ! The old prison, a rather 
picturesque building resembling a mosque, is now turned into a public 
library; the cells, once filled with pirates and boozy blockade -runners, 
now form the alcoves of a very well-arranged library, stocked with some 
six thousand volumes, generally well selected, and open to the use of the 




GOVERNMENT HOUSE. 



public. As this institution is near the hotel, it is of great advantage to 
strangers sojourning on the island. 

Some of the mulattoes display considerable talent as artisans. The 
shell-work they produce shows exquisite taste and skill ; and Bethel, the 
best ship-builder of the group — and a very clever man he is, too — is of 
the colored persuasion. Captain Stuart, who commands the light-house 
and revenue schooner, is a man of commanding appearance and marked 
intelligence, and is regarded by the negroes of Nassau as " a sort of god 



16 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



round heali," as they phrase it, because he foretold the great hurricane 
of 1SG6. The colored people of Nassau are much addicted to church- 
going, and it is pleasant of a calm evening to hear the singing from the 
churches all over the town. Poppy Burner, as he is familiarly called, 

a quaint, unique character, is their 
most noted preacher, and many of 
his curious sayings and eccentrici- 
ties are current. He is, in addition, 
a man possessed of intellectual pow- 
er, and is thoroughly in earnest. Old 
Gunnybags is another noted charac- 
ter of Nassau, a modern Diogenes, 
who takes up his residence in Grants- 
town, the suburb affected by the 
black gentry. The old fellow, not 
to speak disrespectfully of him, was 
crossed in love in his earlier days, it 
is said, since which melancholy event 
he has worn a suit of gunny bags of 
a fashion not borrowed from Paris, 
and has slept in a hogshead laid on 
its side under a wall by the wayside ; 
owing to the narrowness of his quar- 
ters and the heat of the climate, he 
cooks his meals in the open air. A 
little beyond Grantstown are the 
places called Jericho and Jericho-beyond-Jordan, which show what thrift 
the negro can display on occasion. 

As a class, however, the negroes of the Bahamas are far more supersti- 
tious than religious. They are great cowards at night, shutting up their 
cabins tight as a drum to keep out the wandering powers of darkness. 
Although the fact is resented by many of the most intelligent colored 
residents, there is no doubt that the more ignorant negroes of these islands 
entertain an almost incredible belief in fetichism. The obeah men drive 
a thriving business, and it is seldom a sponging-boat goes to sea without 
first enlisting the valuable aid of the man-witch or warlock. They are 
said to be lazy, and certainly they seem to take life very easily, lying on 
the ground sometimes for hours under the full blaze of the noonday sun, 
chewing the end of a sugar-cane, or brawling in grandiloquent and often 
meaningless rodomontade at the street corners. But there is little need 




OLD GINXYBAL 



THE BAHAMAS. 



17 



of exertion when it takes so little to supply their immediate wants. A 
recent pastoral of one of the ritualistic priests, giving directions for the 
observance of Lent, created "inextinguishable laughter" in Nassau, for, 
among other ordinances, it forbade the eating of sugar. As sugar-cane 
forms a staple article of food with the negroes, a strict observance of 
his directions would have been followed by lamentable results. But I 
think the charge of laziness unfounded, if one but considers the severe 
labor the negroes often accomplish, as, for example, in the sponge fishery, 
which gives employment to the owners and crews of five hundred licensed 
craft of ten to twenty-five tons burden, and is carried on with some risk 
from the weather, and much hardship, for the sponges are two or three 
fathoms below the surface, and must be torn from the rocks with hooks 
attached to long poles. The position of the sponges is ascertained by 
means of a water-glass, which is a simple oblong box a foot square, open 
at the upper end, and containing a pane of glass at the other; on holding 
this perpendicularly over the water one can see everything through it as 
clearly as in an aquarium — fish, sponges, coral, or shells. The Bahama 




SPOVJE YARD, 



sponges are chiefly of four sorts — sheep-wool (which is the most valuable), 
reef, velvet, and glove; and, although inferior to the finest Mediterranean 
sponges, are very strong, and serviceable for washing carriages, surgery, 
and the like. The sponge -boats usually get in on Saturday, and the 

2 



IS THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

sponges are assorted in the markets, each boat-load and variety by itself. 
On Monday they are disposed of at auction, only members of the sponge 
guild and those making genuine offers being permitted to bid, which is 
done by written tenders. 

Talking aloud to themselves is another trait peculiar to the negroes 
of the Bahamas. As a proof of their love for large -sounding phrases 
alluded to above, which are often used without the slightest idea of their 
meaning, I give here a copy of a letter written by a soldier of one of the 
native regiments, addressed to his physician, who kindly placed it at my 
disposal, selecting it at random from a number of similar precious doc- 
uments he had received : 

"Feb. 23, 187-. 

"Sir, — I thy most worthy servant, have the honour, at this time, to im- 
plore and beseeche thee, this 2d time to Pore this thy patient and impen- 
itent hand Maid, for although it has pleased the Almighty to deal thus 
with her, as she at present is, still i trust that it may please him also to 
release her, out of her present pains and sufferings, to her former position 
again. And we trust that his Never failing providence may and will sup- 
port thee to listen to the Tortures and cries of the Afflicted, for his mer- 
cies sake. Sir the present positions of thy penitent hand Maid is thus, a 
severe and Protruberance pain in the back, and a cough in proportion to 
the pain in the back, and a pain in the stomach in proportion to the cough, 
and a standing weakness, and a stubborn faintiness, with restlessness day 
and night, and Sir she stands at present in need of a good proportion of 
blood, for Sir she loose a good set, before she came to thee the first time. 
For Sir, she was losing it from Sunday to Sunday, which was eight days, 
and it began to abate on the ninth day. And Sir by the help of God and 
thy assistance, I implore thee to try for her for 

" I am thy humble Servant." 

Wrecking is another branch of business for which the Bahamas have 
long been famous, owing to their intricate navigation. At one time this 
was very lucrative, but it has been falling off of late years. Formerly 
everything saved from a wreck was sold at auction in Nassau ; now all 
goods not of a perishable nature, and undamaged, are reshipped to the 
port of destination. Collusion between ship -masters and the pilots was 
also frequent; but increased vigilance on the part of the insurance com- 
panies has interfered with this nefarious business, while the numerous 
ligl it-houses recently erected by the Government, with noble self-sacrifice, 
have operated in the same direction. The uncertainties attending money- 



THE BAHAMAS. 



10 



making in this precarious way have their effect on the character of the 
people, as is the case when the element of chance enters largely into busi- 
ness; the prizes in the lottery are few, but are occasionally so large as to 
excite undue expectations, and thus unfit many for any pursuit more steady 
but less exciting. For months they will cruise around, watching and hop- 
ing, and barely kept alive on a scant supply of sugar-cane and conchs : 
then they fall in with a wreck, and make enough from it, perhaps, to 
keep them going another year. It is not a healthy or desirable state of 
affairs. 

One Sunday morning a commotion arose quite unusual in the uncom- 




ENTItANCE TO POET NASSAU. 



monly quiet and orderly streets of Nassau. There was hurrying to and 
fro, and the sound of voices shrill and rapid indicated some sudden and 
extraordinary excitement. The wharves of the little port were thronged 
and positively black with eager negroes, and great activity was noticeable 
among the sloops and schooners. Some were discharging their cargoes 
of sponges, shells, fish, and cattle in hot haste; others were provisioning 
or setting up their rigging; others again were expeditiously hoisting their 
sails and heaving up their anchors ; while the crews, black and white. 
sung songs in merry chorus, as if under the influence of great and good 
tidings. What could it all mean? It meant this: another vein in the 
Bahama gold mines had been struck, another lead discovered, and the 
miners were off to develop it, each hoping to be the lucky one to turn out 
the largest nugget, and to retire on it for life. In other words, news had 
just been brought of the wreck of a Spanish vessel on the Lavadeiros 
Shoal, one hundred and fifty miles away. She was none of your wretched 



20 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



colliers or fruiters, with a cargo valueless to wreckers, but a ship whose 
hold from keelson to deck beams was packed with a thousand tons of 
choice silks and stuffs for the black-eyed brunettes of Havana, just enough 
damaged to oblige them to be sold at auction in Nassau, where all goods 
wrecked in that archipelago must be brought for adjudication. Yerily, we 
thought, " it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good ;" the misfortune 
which has wrung the soul and perhaps ruined the happiness of two or 
three in far-off lands has made glad the hearts of several thousand dark- 
ies, mulattoes, and whites in the Bahamas. Here is a text for La Roche- 
foucauld, the modern cynic. 

The manufacture and exportation of salt have also been among the 
most lucrative pursuits of the islands. With the single exception of Andros 
Island, which seems to be still in a formative state, there is not a fresh- 
water lake or stream in the whole 
group; but lakes of some size, contain- 
ing more or less salt, are found on 
many of the islands. Vast quantities 
of salt have been made at Exuma, 
Long Island, Rose Island, Inagua, and 
Turk's Island. The latter is now un- 
der the jurisdiction of Jamaica, and 
the production of salt at the other isl- 
ands is at present in a very languish- 
ing condition, the result of the high 
duties imposed by our Government 
on the article, which act in two ways, 
like a two- edged sword, forcing our 
people to pay a higher price than they 
otherwise would for what salt they 
consume, and effectually crippling one of the most important trades of 
the West Indies. 

But the branches of business which in past years have brought most 
wealth into Nassau have been buccaneering, privateering, and blockade- 
running. The buccaneers were at one time in high feather there ; they 
bought up or captured the governors, toasted and roasted the people when 
recalcitrant, and, hiding behind the low keys in their little vessels, sprung 
out, spider -like, on any unwary trader quietly sailing by. Blackbeard, 
who is represented in the cut given above, from an old print, was the 
most celebrated of the ruffian chiefs who at various times ruled over these 
islands. An immense silk-cotton-tree stood until within a few years on 




BLACKBEARD, THE PIRATE. 



THE BAHAMAS. 



21 



Bay Street, in Nassau, under the broad branches of which he admin- 
istered high-handed justice, and caroused with his harridan dames. He 
was finally killed off the coast of South Carolina in a desperate fight, and 
the land had rest for certain years, 
the escutcheon of the colony bearing 
since that time the significant legend, 
"JExpulsis jnratis, restltuta commer- 
cial 

After the pirates came the pri- 
vateers of the Revolution. Fincastle 
(Lord Dunmore), when he left Vir- 
ginia, settled in the Bahamas, of which 
he was appointed governor, and he 
was followed by many Tories. Al- 
though not a great man, his is one of 
the most noted names connected with 
the history of the Bahamas. Traces of 
his administration still exist in many 
places. There is a quaint fort named Fincastle behind the Victoria Hotel, 
curiously resembling a paddle-box steamer ; and the country-seat where 
he resided, now called the Hermitage, is still standing by the water, ad- 
mirably situated, surrounded by a noble grove of oaks and cocoa-palms. 
Royal Island, having a snug little harbor easy of access, was a rendezvous 
where arms and stores were concealed, and royalist privateers made it a 
common resort during the American Revolution. An old stone house still 
remains there which has doubtless witnessed many wild, mysterious scenes 
in days gone by. 




FOUT FINCASTLE, NASSAU. 




THE HERMITAGE, COl'NTBY-SEAT OF LOKD DUNMOKE, AT NASSAU. 



22 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

"We may add, in passing, that one of the most noted characters who 
ever figured in Nassau was Blennerhasset, notorious for his relations 
with Aaron Burr. It will be remembered that after the excitement pro- 
duced by the trial had blown over, Blennerhasset passed off the scene ; 
but Blennerhasset still lived. There is excellent authority for stating that 
the Bahamas, a refuge for so many rovers and adventurers, gave him a 
shelter during some of the remaining years of his life. Leaving his wife 
( whom the classic oration of Wirt has made famous) to care for herself, 
he there assumed the name of Carr, and received the position of Attorney- 
general. The secret was known to but few. Another wife consoled him 
for the absence of Mrs. Blennerhasset, who once discovered his retreat, 
but was spirited out of the island, and maintained elsewhere on a sep- 
arate allowance. Those were roistering days, when gentlemen drank hard, 
played high, and fought duels like devils — days now fortunately passed, 
it is hoped, forever, at least in Nassau — and Blennerhasset acted his role 
well, by no means a looker-on in Vienna. 

And now we come to the most remarkable episode in the history of 
the Bahamas, the part they played in the Southern rebellion, about which 
a volume of entertaining information could be written. On the 5th of 
December, 1861, the first Confederate vessel arrived from Charleston, 
with 144 bales of cotton; and between that time and the close of the 
war 397 vessels entered Nassau from Confederate ports, and 588 sailed 
thence for Southern ports. Of these the steamers were to the sailing ves- 
sels in the ratio of three to one. Of the clearances 432 were ostensibly 
for St. John, New Brunswick, and of the total number only thirty-two 
carried the Confederate flag — a pretty fair indication of the amount of 
complicity practised about that time by Her Majesty's subjects and officials 
in Nassau, and of the value of the British capital engaged in this ques- 
tionable traffic. In nothing was this connivance on the part of a neutral 
pow T er more evident than in the case of the Florida, or Oreto, which w r as 
three times seized by the commander of the British man-of-war Bull-dog, 
and three times released by the decision of the insular Admiralty Court 
on grounds afterward wisely disavowed by the Home Government. 

During the Confederate years the little town actually swarmed with 
Southern refugees, the captains and crews of blockade -runners, cotton- 
brokers, rum-sellers, Jews and Gentiles of high and low degree, coining 
uey and squandering it as if they owned the secret of the transmuta- 
tion of metals. They played toss-penny in the verandas of the Royal Vic- 
toria Hotel with gold eagles! The shops were packed to the ceilings; 
the streets were crowded with bales, boxes, and barrels — cotton coming in, 



THE BAHAMAS. 



23 



Confederate uniforms and pills of lead and quinine, to pepper patriots 
and patients, going out. Semmes and his bold boys twisted their mus- 
taches at every corner, danced involuntary reels and hornpipes from grog- 
gery to groffgrery, and from the waxed floors of the Government House, 
where they were always sure of a cordial reception, to the decks of the 
Banshee and Alabama, or brandished their revolvers in the faces of Union 
men, whose lives were too uncertain to insure thereabouts in those rol- 
licking days. A spicy little paper called the Young Punch, edited by a 
witty Confederate in Nassau, under the sobriquet of "The Can't Get 
Away Club," gives a glimpse of the state of things then existing, and 
shows that there was some real fun connected with blockade-running. A 




KOVAL VICTORIA HOTEL. 



rather grim joke was played at the expense of the rebels via Nassau. A 
large invoice of prayer-books was brought from England and reshipped to 
Charleston, with the express understanding that they were suited to the 
devotional wants of the Confederacy. Quite a number had been distrib- 
uted before it was discovered that the prayers for the President and Con- 
gress of the United States had not been altered ! 

It is not a creditable fact that some of the goods smuggled into the 



24 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 




PUBLIC LIBRARY, NASSAU. 



Confederacy by way of Nassau were from Northern ports, as, for example, 
ship-loads of pistols brought from Boston in barrels of lard. On the other 
hand, there are many instances of noble patriotism on record. The name 
of Timothy Darling, Esq., is deserving the honor and respect of every 
true American. A native of Maine, but long a resident of Nassau, a 
British subject, and one of the principal merchants and politicians of the 
Bahamas, he was more than once offered the agency of the Confederacy, 
and always firmly declined — a proposal which, as the event proved, would 
have been worth several hundred thousand dollars to him. 

During the continuance of the war the weather was exceptionally fine 
even for the West Indies; no hurricanes, and but few gales of any vio- 
lence, occurred. Everything went on merry as a marri age-bell, and the 
policies of vessels clearing for Nassau might well have omitted the words 
"wind and weather permitting." But in the year succeeding the fall of 
Richmond, 1866, occurred the most terrible hurricane experienced in those 
waters during this century. The ocean rolled completely over Hog Island 
into the harbor in surges so enormous that the crest was even with the 
gallery of the light-house, sixty feet above the sea. Houses and forests 
went down before the wind like reeds ; many which withstood its force 



THE BAHAMAS. 25 

when it blew from north-east collapsed when it shifted to south-west. In 
twenty -four hours the city was like a town sacked and burned by the 
enemy, and a large part of the wealth accumulated during the war had 
disappeared into thin air. The island has never entirely recovered from 
the blow. Those who are inclined to believe in special providences may 
find food for reflection in the circumstance that no Union man had his 
house wrecked, or suffered any considerable loss. This is, at least, a curi- 
ous coincidence. It is not to be supposed, however, that violent weather 
or hurricanes are frequent in the Bahamas. Formerly they occurred once 
in two or three years, in August to October, but now blow at much longer 
intervals. There has been no hurricane in that archipelago since the one 
of 1S66. The prevailing winds are north to south, round by east, taking 
the form of trade-winds from the eastward during a large part of the year, 
and it is rarely that the heat of mid-day is not cooled by a breeze from the 
sea. The facilities for yachting and fishing at Nassau are admirable, fast 
yachts being always on hand, while the neighboring keys present attract- 
ive resorts for picnic parties, and the variety, beauty, and savage character 
of many of the fish render fishing a sport of more than ordinary interest. 
The beautiful Lakes of Killarney, in the interior of New Providence, 
abound with wild-duck, and those who care to cruise as far as Green Key 
may find lots of pigeon-shooting. 

The drives around Nassau are also very charming, often leading by 
the sea-side. There are few scenes more replete with quiet but exquisite 
and satisfying beauty than the drive to Fort Montague toward sunset; on 
one side, groves of palms, lithe and graceful as nymphs, gently swaying 
their undulating plumage in the evening wind; on the other side, the 
sea murmuring on the yellow sand ; in the distance, the city and the port 
limned against a sky ablaze with the glory of the tropics. The roads are 
always excellent, and of such a nature that the horses, when shod at all, 
are only shod on the fore-feet. With a few exceptions, they are small 
and meagre to a degree that renders Rosinante corpulent in comparison, 
being fed chiefly on sugar-cane stalks. It is curious that on islands gen- 
erally the equine race, while exceptionally hardy, has a tendency to dwin- 
dle in size. But although appearances would lead one to expect a similar 
condition in the vegetation of the Bahamas, the reverse seems to hold good. 
With but one or two exceptions, the islands are low calcareous rocks, prob- 
ably the summits of peaks once rising far above the sea, and enlarged and 
re-elevated by coral insects since their submergence. The limestone is 
gray, and so hard as to strike fire when exposed to the weather, but soft 
enough below to be shaped with saw and hatchet, while the layer of soil 



26 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



scattered over it is so thin as to make it impossible to understand how 
anything but scrub and goats could flourish upon it. Any Yankee so 
enterprising or hare-brained as to introduce the latest improved plough 
into Nassau would be considered a tit candidate for the Insane Asylum 
behind the bishop's residence. And yet there is not a plant of the tropics 
that may not be made to grow there, and many of the temperate zone. 
The mahogany is common, chiefly on Andros Island, and might become a 
lucrative branch of commerce if there were roads to transport it to the sea. 




SILK-COTTON-TllEE, NASSAU. 



The variety called the horse-flesh is exceedingly durable, and is exclusively 
used for the frames of Bahama vessels. It seems to rival oak for this 
purpose. The pine reaches a good size in the interior of New Providence, 
where the palmetto is so intermingled with it as to present a suggestive 
blending of the vegetation of two zones. The wild pineapple, or air-plant, 
which lives in the branches of forest trees, holding sometimes a quart of 
dew in its silver-gray bowl of spiky leaves, is also an interesting object. 
The satinwood, lignumvitre, yellow -wood, fusti(;, and cedar grow every- 
where, and cocoa and date palms abound, together with the Ficus Indicus, 
a species of banyan. Of the East Indian banyan a very perfect specimen 



THE BAHAMAS. 27 

exists near Foit Montague. The banana, tamarind, sapodilla, mango, cof- 
fee-plant, guava, custard-apple, orange, sugar-cane, mammee, and almost 
every vegetable production of the tropics, grow more or less in the Baha- 
mas. The oranges of San Salvador or Watling's Island are exceptionally 
sweet. How such vegetation can thrive on a mere basis of rock is a per- 
petual mystery. I visited an orange plantation outside of Nassau where 
the gray rock was completely honey-combed with depressions called cave- 
holes. On the bottom of these was a little soil, and there the trees grew 
and flourished in clumps of eight or ten. The grape fruit is a species of 
large orange, the color of a citron, and with a thick rind and a pleasant 
flavor. Why it should be called the grape fruit seems difficult to under- 
stand. A gentleman from the Bahamas saw some of them in a fruit- 
vender's stall in New York labelled California oranges, their size seeming 
in accordance with the usual exaggerated character of the productions of 
that ambitious State. "My friend," said he to the fruit-vender, " those 
are not California oranges; they are Bahama grape fruit." 

"I guess you'd better move on," was the vender's reply, in an unmis- 
takable tone of asperity. 

One of the most singular trees in the Bahamas is the silk-cotton, which 
attains a large size, not only reaching a good height, but spreading laterally 
over a wide surface, and buttressed at the base like a Gothic tower, evi- 
dently an adaptation by nature to support it in the absence of any perpen- 
dicular hold it might have in a deeper soil. The roots also extend to a 
great distance, creeping over the rock like vast anacondas, and clinging 
to every crevice. The bolls are full of a soft brown cotton, resembling 
floss silk, but not adhesive enough for use. One of the most remarkable 
specimens of this tree is the one behind the Government House. Its roots 
extend nearly the eighth of a mile, and then shoot up into another mag- 
nificent specimen in the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hotel, in whose 
branches a large platform has been constructed. 

The cactus and aloe are, of course, common, and especially the Sisal 
aloe, from which manilla rope might very well be manufactured with a 
little enterprise, as might also be added regarding the production of cas- 
tor-oil, as the plant grows abundantly on the islands. The pineapple flour- 
ishes in San Salvador and Eleuthera; the chief supplies of that delicious 
fruit which reach our markets are from the latter island. 

The cruise to Harbor Island and Eleuthera is one of the most interest- 
ing within easy distance of Nassau. It can be made in a yacht or in one 
of the many little schooners constant!} 7 plying to and fro; keys are always 
in sight, and a lee can be made at an}' time ; while one can return by way 



28 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



of Abaco, where a cruise in the sounds on either side of that island, and 
a visit to the curious little settlement called Hopetown, inhabited by de- 
scendants of the buccaneers, present various attractions. Spanish Wells, 
on the island of that name, is a most singular place. Planted on the low 
beach, the houses are huddled together in inconceivable disorder, and 
built on posts to raise them above the sea waves, and also to keep them 
free from the incursions of the hermit-crabs, which live in the rocks in vast 
numbers, and often come out at night and prowl over the land. Before 
every house is an oven — it was baking-day when we touched there — and 
the smell of fresh bread could be observed before we got to land. It was 
also ironing-day, and before every cabin flat-irons were ranged on coals. 




DUNMORE TOWN. 



The women wear the peculiar oblong pasteboard sun -bonnet which was 
common years ago in our rural districts, called in some places "rantam- 
skoots," and their appearance is not especially attractive; but then I did 
not see them in their best bibs and tuckers, and dress does make a differ- 
ence. The school -house is thatched with palm leaves, and is a quaint 
little building. The school-master told me they lived on conchs and fish, 
and he had not tasted meat for two months. If fish makes brain, the 
Bahamians ought to be intellectual to a degree; but facts do sometimes 
conflict with theories. .Many of the fish in those waters are poisonous at 
times, especially the barracuda, which is a very savage fish, three to five 
feet long. The cause for the noxious character of the West India fish i& 
not yet fully explained. The symptoms of poisoning by the barracuda 
are great itching, pain in the joints, and baldness, lasting sometimes for 
years. The first hint of poison is a violent sickness of the stomach, at- 



THE BAHAMAS. 29 

tended with vomiting within half an hour after eating the fish. The white 
people of the Bahamas generally induce the negro fish-sellers to eat of 
the fish first, and, if it prove harmless, then partake of it themselves. We 
caught a large barracuda, on the way to Harbor Island, and it was cooked. 
Ignorant of its dangerous qualities, I ate freely of it. After I had satisfied 
my appetite, I was told of the possible symptoms that might soon follow. 
It being too late to avoid the mischief, I gave the matter no further 
thought, and happily suffered no ill effects. 

From Spanish Wells the track lies over a succession of coral reefs, 
through which the passage is of the most intricate character ; one of the 
worst places, a long zigzag reef, is called the Devil's Backbone. Were 
it not for the extraordinary clearness and vivid malachite tints of the 
water, and that wherever a reef rises near the surface it is indicated by a 
reddish spot, the complementary color of green, it would be next to im- 
possible for a vessel to work into the port. The brilliance of this hue at 
mid-day also causes the deep water beyond to appear purple, while the sky 
is actually flushed with rose to the zenith on a bright day. The port of 
Harbor Island is spacious, and so protected by reefs and bars at each en- 
trance as to be the safest in the world for vessels not drawing over nine 
feet of water, after they once get inside of it. It is formed by a low 
island stretching across a bight at the north-eastern end of Eleuthera. On 
the inner slope of this isle is situated Dunmore Town, containing twenty- 
five hundred inhabitants, next to Nassau the largest settlement in the Ba- 
hamas. A very pleasing little place it is, encircled by beautiful cocoa-nut 
groves, and dreaming by the green water in an air of solitude and peace 
which is very bewitching to one who is weary of the rush and giddy whirl 
of the nineteenth century, while the cool trade-winds always moderate the 
heat. On the ocean side of Harbor Island is the finest beach I have seen, 
of very fine, delicate pinkish sand, hard as a floor, a glorious galloping 
ground for the half-dozen ponies in the place. The people depend for 
fresh water chiefly on wells sunk in the drifted sand immediately back 
of the beach. When the well is dug, it is protected from falling in by 
three or four barrels, one over the other, and the rude curb is guarded 
with a padlock. The sea-water filters through the sand into these wells, 
and becomes sweet as ordinary spring- water. A gale of wind destroys 
the wells once in three or four years, and excavating new ones is a dan- 
gerous process. The inhabitants gain a livelihood cultivating pineapples 
on Eleuthera. A fleet of two hundred boats is owned in the settlement. 
Every morning at sunrise this little fleet spreads its wings to the trade- 
wind, and wafts eight hundred men and boys, black and white, to the 



30 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



lovely beach and cocoa-nut groves on Eleuthera, two miles away; every 
night they return. The pineapples begin to ripen in April, and only grow 
to advantage on a peculiar red soil that is always thin, and is found in 
but few districts. The plantations are on undulating ground, the highest 
in the Bahamas, and are skirted by mahogany, logwood, and cocoa-nut 
groves, overgrown with the brown love vine, and abounding in scarlet- 
flowered hop, clitoria or wild pea, and various other flowers, while the 
song of the brown thrush resounds in every thicket. A pine field, when 




GLASS WINDOWS. 



the pines are ripe, looks as if it were on fire, the scarlet of the spiked 
leaves forming a flame -color with the vivid orange -yellow of the fruit. 
There are two principal varieties of the pineapple, the scarlet and the sug- 
ar-loaf, the latter of which is the best. It is almost needless to add that 
pineapples such as those of Eleuthera, eaten perfectly ripe on the spot, are 
infinitely superior to the pineapples sold in our markets. The same may 
be said of the cocoa-nut. For a penny a negro urchin would climb up a 
tree and fetch me a pair of what are called jelly cocoa-nuts, the fruit be- 
ing plucked before the pulp has hardened, so that it can be eaten with a 
spoon. The flavor is very delicatCj while the milk is cool even at mid-day, 



THE BAHAMAS. 31 

and furnishes a thoroughly healthy, mildly astringent drink, preferable 
to water or the bran dy-and- water in which the residents too often indulge 
for a warm climate. 

Some charming excursions may be made from Harbor Island. The 
bay is one of the most beautiful sheets of water ever marked by the keel 
of a yacht, fringed by cocoa-nut groves, and protected from the surges of 
ocean by the silver-flashing barrier of the bar. The walk from Bottom 
Cove to the arch called the Glass Windows is remarkable for the sug- 
gestive beauty of the land forms, the effect being heightened by the stately 
stalks of the aloe rising here and there, like solitary bronze columns, lift- 
ing a massy coronal - of golden flowers against the sky ; while on one side, 
owing to the narrowness of Eleuthera at that spot, the green water of 
the coral reefs is close at hand, and on the other actually blue water, 
for Eleuthera is on the extreme edge of the Banks, serving for some 
seventy miles as a breakwater for the rest of the group against the vast 
waves of the Atlantic, which rise there suddenly sometimes without any 
wind, and last for several hours. The natives call these windless risings 
of the sea " rages ;" they are probably caused by a heavy storm blowing 
at a distance. In 1872 an extraordinary tidal wave rose without warn- 
ing at the Glass Windows, washing under the arch and entirely over the 
island, carrying away several young people who were enjoying a picnic 
there. The account of the rescue of one of them is a thrilling and re- 
markable story, too long for narration here ; but those who visit Harbor 
Island will find Mr. Cole, the intelligent and courteous school - master, 
quite willing to repeat the narrative of an adventure of which he was 
himself an eye-witness. The arch is of limestone, eighty -five feet above 
the sea. A line can be dropped plumb down to the water. It is split 
entirely across at the centre, and as one stands over the crack fancy read- 
ily suggests the consequences if the arch should fall in at that moment. 
Near Gregory's Harbor is a cave extending eleven hundred feet under- 
ground, enriched with stalactites of a brilliant brown hue. It is really 
worth visiting. There is also a large cave at Long Island. 

South by east of Eleuthera is Cat Island, or Guanahani, celebrated 
as the land first seen by Columbus, and called by him San Salvador. 
The reader must here be prepared, however, for a surprise, when, it is 
stated that in all probability it was not Cat Island which Columbus 
named San Salvador, but Watling's Island — a smaller isle a little more 
to the southward and eastward. The facts in the case are these : con- 
trary, probably, to the general opinion, it has never been definitely known 
which was the island entitled to the honor ; but about fifty years ago, 



32 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



when historians were busy with the voyage of Columbus, they under- 
took to settle the question by comparing his journal with the imperfect 
charts of the Bahamas then existing. Navarette fixed on Turk's Island, 
which later investigation has proved to be erroneous ; while Irving, sup- 
ported by the strong authority of Humboldt, argued for Cat Island, and 
since then this has been generally accepted as San Salvador, and it is so 
designated on our charts to this day. But the English reversed their 
opinion some time ago, and transferred the name of San Salvador to "VVat- 




STREET IN NASSAU. 



ling's Island, and it will be so found on their latest charts. The reasons 
for this change seem conclusive. Lieutenant Beecher, of the English navy, 
proves beyond question that Cat Island cannot be San Salvador, and that 
Watling's Island answers the conditions required better than any other 
island lying in the track of Columbus. His two strongest reasons against 
Cat Island are that Columbus states that he rowed around the northern 
end in one day. The size of Cat Island makes this physically impossible 
there, while it is quite feasible at the other island. He also speaks of a 
large lake in the interior. There is no such water on Cat Island, while 
such a lake does exist on Watlinff's Island. 



THE AZORES. 33 



CHAPTER II. 

THE AZORES. 

IT was on the 23d of July that the Al clipper-bark Jehu sailed from 
Boston for Fayal and a market, in ballast. She had in the steerage 
thirty-one Portuguese, who were returning home, and the object of the 
voyage was ostensibly to secure a charter for an early cargo of oranges 
in November, but really to obtain, clandestinely, a haul of Azorean pas- 
sengers flying the islands in face of the stringent prohibitory laws against 
emigration. There is in the Portuguese dominions a strict system of 
conscription, under which every man, on reaching twenty-one, must incur 
the chance of being drawn for the army ; and inconsequence no one can 
leave the Azores who has not yet had his name shaken in the lot, unless 
he gives bonds in three hundred dollars that he will return and serve, if 
drawn, the money to be forfeited if he fails to respond ; and this regula- 
tion applies even to mere lads scarce weaned. It is evident that the great 
poverty of the people makes this a pretty effectual bar to emigration. It 
is true that passports are with some reluctance granted to those who do 
not come within the application of this law, yet those wishing to emigrate 
are principally young and enterprising males. But for years they have 
found means to evade the observation of the Government, escaping on 
passing whalers, whose crews are largely composed of Portuguese, or on 
English and American traders, which have occasionally cruised among 
the islands for the purpose of "stealing Portuguese," as the business is 
called. The Jehu was at the time the only American vessel then depend- 
ing for its profits on this curious and hazardous traffic, the other packets 
plying between this country and the Azores being partly owned by resi- 
dents there, who do not dare to trespass on the laws of the land. 

Manuel, the second mate, and all the crew were Portuguese ; he was 
very handsome, black-bearded, eagle-eyed, and with a herculean frame. 
We had baffling winds, with calms and fogs, until we got near whaling- 
ground. The Azores are an important rendezvous for whalers, who can 
provision there more cheaply than at home, and for that purpose touch 

3 



31 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



there even when bound around the Horn. The waters in that vicinity are 
also good for cruising, although whales are less abundant than formerly. 
On the 5th of August we took a sou'-wester, and the Jehu flew toward 
Flores with every stitch of canvas set and all drawing, making a thou- 
sand miles in four days, galloping away with the wind abaft the beam, 
and carrying sail until it blew away. An observation on the 8th showed 
that we had passed Flores, which had been hidden in mist, at midnight, 
when we should have been abreast of the island. Captain Brown had 
thought of lying to the previous night, but had unwisely concluded to 



% 



Tekceika 



-£° s Pico 



AZORES 

— or — 

Western Isles 



JOTl V * 



\V 



ias- 



jv.i & s... v. r. 



30 Longitu.k- West 29 from Greenwich 28 



keep on, and we now had to beat to windward sixty miles. We were not 
the first who had found the Western Islands elusive as the Flying Dutch- 
man or St. Brandon's Isle. Lying far apart as they do, it is quite easy, 
when the weather is at all thick, to miss them, or come foul of them with 
a fatal crash, for they are all so precipitous that a ship may almost any- 
where butt her bowsprit against the cliffs before grounding or finding 
anchorage. The Azores (so called from the agor, a hawk peculiar to those 
islands) were discovered early in the fifteenth century by Cabral, and the 
Formigas, a reef near St. Mary, were the first seen. St. Michael and St. 
Mary were the first to be settled, about 1431, sixty years before the voyage 
of Columbus ; who on his return, in pursuance of a vow made during a 
great storm, landed half his crew, who went barefoot to the Chapel of the 



THE AZORES. 35 

Virgin to offer thanksgiving. He was about to follow with the remainder 
of the crew, but was hindered by the unfriendly conduct of the governor. 

It was a fine morning in August when we reached Flores — the Isle 
of Flowers — and with a fresh leading wind stood close along the shore, 
enjoying a good view of the jagged volcanic peaks and well-cultivated 
slopes. We hove to at breakfast-time off Santa Cruz, the chief place on 
the island. A boat soon came off with the health officer, and after getting 
pratique, I went ashore with the captain. The boats of Flores are made 
for out-at-sea work, deep and broad, more like a small ship than a row- 
boat, and the oars are very clumsy, and constructed of two or three pieces, 
crooked boughs, fastened together with marline, and turning on the gun- 
wale by a broad slab through which the thole-pin passes : it requires two 
or three men to pull them. We reached the port — and what a port! 
Riding in on the top of a roller, through a gauntlet of black lava rocks, 
hoary with roaring foam, and scarce thirty yards apart, we entered a haven 
about an acre and a half in extent, surrounded by perpendicular cliffs, on 
whose edges the houses are perched, and with a beach to match, affording 
scant room for a dozen boats. The boatmen took us off the boat on their 
shoulders, and landed us high and dry amidst a throng of eager men, 
women, and children, who occupied every spare foothold from whjch the 
new arrivals could be seen. Closely they gathered around us, the young 
and the old, the halt and the maimed, the rich and the poor, the latter in 
large majority ; some to welcome us, others to gaze, others to badger and 
barter, and still others to beg. A public fountain near the landing, emp- 
tying its musical stream into a stone trough, and surrounded by a group 
of barefooted, black-eyed, olive-hued girls in white mantles, tilling earthen 
jars, was the first object to fix my attention, vividly reminding me that, 
although yet in the Atlantic, I had again come within the magic influence 
which lends an indescribable charm to the shores of the Mediterranean. 

The people of Flores are good-looking, many of the young girls and 
youths having a piquant beauty that is very attractive. But the aged 
often have the parchment-like, deeply wrinkled skin common the world 
over to the peasantry when advanced in years. The women of Flores 
generally wear a shawl or white cloth over their heads. Excepting the 
few of the upper class, both sexes of all ages go barefoot. When they 
attend mass they carry their shoes with them, and put them on before 
entering the church. 

Convents for both sexes were abolished throughout the group by Dom 
Pedro I., but the Franciscan convent of Santa Cruz still stands. The dor- 
mitories are let to tenants, but the chapel belonging to it is a fair speci- 



36 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

men of the Renaissance-Italian style as seen in colonial churches, adapted, 
by its profuse and rather tawdrily gilded ornamentation, to impress an 
ignorant populace. The church of Santa Cruz occupies a commanding 
position, and is externally one of the best in the Azores. It is flanked 
by two towers surmounted by Saracenic domes; but the interior is cold 
and naked. Both church and convent are about three centuries old. 

The formation of Flores and the neighboring island of Corvo, which 
is merely a crater whose sides are cultivated by a small colony of Moriscos 
not a thousand in number, is in some respects different from that of the 
remainder of the group ; that they are distinct is partially proved by the 
circumstance that earthquake-shocks felt in the other islands are not expe- 
rienced in these two, which have shocks entirely their own. Figs, } 7 ams, 
potatoes, corn, wheat, bananas, apples, peaches, and almost any vegetable 
production of both spheres, grow, or can be made to grow, on these islands, 
so mild is the average temperature, extremes being unknown. But to 
bring many of them to perfection, a more intelligent culture is necessary 
than they receive at these islands. It never freezes, even during the rainy 
season, except on the mountains, nor does the mercury often rise above 
85° in summer. Excellent figs I tasted, yet by no means comparable to 
the fig of the Levant ; the apples are far inferior to ours ; and the grapes 
are only tolerable. It is but fair to add that for eighteen years a blight 
has cursed the Azorean vineyards, as in the Madeiras, and both grapes 
and wine are scarcer, and possibly poorer, than formerly. The indications 
now are that the blight is about over. 

There are several villages in Flores, and agriculture is prosecuted with 
much industry, women also laboring in the fields, and the implements 
are of a patriarchal character. Donkeys and horses are scarce, and the 
means of transportation are the human head and small carts drawn by 
diminutive cattle; the wheels are solid, turning on an axle of chestnut- 
wood, selected especially on account of the infernal squeak it gives out. 
The peasants find this a congenial music on the lonely roads ; it can be 
heard a great distance, and is so modulated as to produce alternately a 
squeak and a groan ! The cattle become accustomed to work to this dole- 
ful accompaniment, and the drivers maintain that it is essential to their 
own happiness; each cart-owner is, in fact, boastful of the peculiar tune 
creaked by his own vehicle. 

Having landed some of our passengers, and engaged provisions against 
our return, we sailed for Fayal. Two days' sail took us close to Castello 
Branco, or White Castle, a bold headland at the southern end of the isl- 
and, four hundred feet high, and resembling a huge fortress, connected 



THE AZORES. 



37 



with the land by a slender natural causeway. But night came on before 
we could weather this headland, and we stood out to sea again to avoid 
being becalmed and sucked against the rocks by the swift, treacherous cur- 
rents. Vessels overtaken by calms sometimes have very narrow escapes 
in those waters. On the following morning we beat into the roadstead of 
Ilorta, the towm of Fayal, the latter name being often incorrectly used for 
both. The name Fayal is derived from thefaya, a small evergreen tree, 
found, however, more on Pico than on the island to which its name is 
given. "The harbor is the best in the group, affording tolerable anchorage 
and shelter from westerly winds, Pico, four miles distant, presenting a 
magnificent breakwater to east winds; but against gales from the north- 




FLOKES CART AND PEASANT HUT. 



east and south-east there is no shelter, and vessels have then to cut and 
run, or incur great risk of going ashore. They always ride at heavy moor- 
ings, and sometimes in a gale all hands seek refuge on land. 

We threw the topsail aback, and waited for the port-boat, which soon 
came out, followed closely by the revenue and several other boats. The 
officers very carefully examined our captain as to the number on board, 
causing all hands to be mustered along the rail to count noses. As we had 
several who had come without passports, and therefore could not pass mus- 
ter, some sharp practice resulted, after which everything was, with some 
hesitation, pronounced satisfactory. Two guards, one more than usual, 
owing to the doubtful character of the Jehu, were detailed to remain on 
board during her stay. Very particular are these Portuguese martinets 
in all the punctilios of revenue law, on the principle that the smaller the 
State the more necessary is it to maintain its dignity with fuss and feath- 



38 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



ers. So strict are the revenue laws that even a mere sail-boat cannot leave 
one island district for another without a clearance. A person cannot go 




FAYAL 



B*° 



""'■'^llnrtallav,- ' 







Z$M 



X 



PICO FROM FAYAL. 



from Pico, in the Fayal district, to St. George, only sixteen miles off, but 
in the Terceira district, except with a passport ; and if caught without one, 
he is permitted to meditate on his sins in jail. 

The captain of a Yankee whaler played a good joke on the port au- 
thorities of Horta. While cruising in the neighboring waters, one of his 
crew fell from aloft and broke his leg. Accordingly, the vessel put into 
Fayal to land the poor fellow. 

" Where are you last from ?" asked the port officer. 

" From Barbadoes." 

He looked over his instructions, and found Barbadoes to be a suspected 
island, so nothing would do but that the whaler must proceed seven hun- 
dred miles to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, and go into quarantine there, 
before she could land the man. What does our sharp Yankee do but sail 
to the island of Terceira, only seventy miles distant. 

" Where are you last from ?" asked the port officer of Terceira. 

" From Fayal," replied the American. 

So they gave him pratique. Then he sailed back to Fayal. 

" Where are you last from ?" again asks the port officer there. 

" From Terceira." 

" Ah, very good." 

They could do nothing else but give him pratique, and the man with 
a broken leg was at last landed, and sent to the hospital at Fayal. Pos- 
sibly this is not the only instance of sharp practice winked at in Fayal. 

The Jehu was now sent in charge of the mate to St. George to land 



THE AZORES. 



39 



the remaining steerage passengers, while Captain Brown stayed at Fayal to 
negotiate for a charter. On landing, I called at the town residence of the 
Dabneys, where I was politely received and treated to fine blackberries 
and figs, and Pico wine, a mild tipple suggesting sherry, although decid- 
edly inferior to it in flavor and quality. The house, built by the late Mr. 
Dabney, for many years United States consul, is surrounded by extensive 
grounds, admirably laid out and stocked with choice exotics. We took up 
our quarters at the hotel kept by Mr. Edwards. The afternoon was pleas- 
antly spent in a stroll to Porto Pim, an excellent little haven adjoining 
the main port, if it were not exposed to the full sweep of westerly gales. 
The town on that side is protected by old fortifications, erected in former 
ages as a defense against the descents of corsairs, and is entered by a pict- 
uresque mediaeval gate. 

Pico began to show his head in the afternoon, indicating good weather. 
lie is the barometer of the Azores : when his head is muffled, the weather 
will be dubious; but when the peak is visible, all will be propitious. The 
mountain stands at the western end of the Pico island, and towers 7613 
feet above the sea, an isolated volcanic cone, surrounded at its base by 




PICO PEAK, FliOM FAYAL. 



many smaller craters. Later in the day I visited the fort by the jetty, and 
there saw " Long Tom," a gun which belonged to the privateer General 
Armstrong, in the war of 1S12. The defense of this vessel, on the 26th 



40 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

of September, 1S14, is one of the most gallant exploits in the history of 
American naval warfare. Captain Reid and his officers were at a ball 
when it was reported that an English fleet was off the port. He hurried 
on board, and moored his ship under protection of the fort. He had only 
seven guns and ninety men, but repulsed three attacks of flotillas sent in 
by an English squadron, destroying many boats, and inflicting on the ene- 
my a loss of three hundred men. Finding that he must eventually be over- 
powered, Captain Reid caused the muzzle of "Long Tom' 1 to be pointed 
into the hold, and fired, thus scuttling the vessel, and escaping to the shore 
with his crew. " Long Tom " was afterward fished up and mounted in 
the fort* 

On the day following I sallied out before breakfast, strolling along the 
water-street which skirts the shore and is protected by a parapeted sea- 
wall. I was in season to see the Pico ferry-boats landing their passengers 
and cargoes, which were carried through the surf on the heads or shoul- 
ders of barelegged boatmen. The boats carry two lateen-sails, and are 
made to stand heavy weather. In the early morning they come from 
Magdalena and Larga, villages of Pico, deeply laden with passengers, 
wood, charcoal, fruits, and other commodities, and, after discharging, re- 
load and return. So soon as the goods were landed, peasant women, 
barefooted and nut-brown, but pleasant-featured, raised the heavy baskets 
or jars to their heads, and wended their way to the market-place, which 
is entered through a high gate from the Rua de Collegio. It is a square 
enclosure, with a row of booths running entirely around, and within these 
meat and provision stalls. On the pavement in front sat the country- 
women, displaying panniers of fruit and vegetables. In the centre of the 
quadrangle is a large well shaded b} 7 fine trees. There is a picturesque- 
ness quite Oriental about the whole scene. 

The remainder of the day was agreeably passed in rambling about the 
city, which has five thousand inhabitants, and is well laid out, on a slope, 
containing some elegant residences and gardens, and several churches, 
which, however, present no architectural points worthy of note. The 
large buildings formerly erected for a Jesuit college, convent, and church 
are now occupied as barracks. 

The freemasons have two lodges in Horta, and the order has some 
strength in the islands. The shops of Horta, as throughout the Azores, 

* It is not generally known that the English fleet which thus attacked Captain Reid in a 
neutral port was carrying re-enforcements to General Packenham at New Orleans. The losses it 
sustained in the fight detained them so long at Fayal that they did not reach New Orleans until 
after the battle at that place had been lost. 



THE AZORES. 



41 



have no windows, but two or three doors, always wide open and giving 
demi-daylight. The dwellings are built over the shops, with small bal- 
conies projecting over the street, some of them veneered with azulejos, or 
glazed tiles. The names of the streets are of the same ware in blue and 
white. The strangest sight in Horta is the capote of the women, worn 
alike in summer and in the rainy season : this cloak is of heavy, dark- 
blue stuff, falling in massive folds to the ankles, and surmounted bv a 
stupendous hood, stiffened with whalebone and buckram, and of astound- 
ing shape and size. Some pretty faces may occasionally be discerned 





THE PICO FERRY. 



under this grotesque guise, although the women of Fayal are less pleasing 
than their sisters of Flores. At night the main street is dimly lighted, 
rather superfluously it seemed to me, as after dark very few steps are 
heard. Day or night, no place could be more quiet. The roar of the 
surf tumbling on the reef or against the sea-wall is about the only sound 
prevailing. Now and then the bray of an ass, or the bark of a dog, or 
the shrill voice of a peasant-girl — once or twice a day the harsh jangle 
of a tumble-down hack drawn slowly by mules — such are the sounds in 
Horta. Quiet reigns there, except at the landing-place near the fort; 
there the bawling of boatmen and sailors is often resonant. 

On the third morning, after another early stroll about the market and 
the port, I ordered a donkey for the Caldeira, or crater of Fayal. The 



42 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

saddle, like those of Scio, is intended for riding sidewise, without stirrups, 
and is broad and well cushioned, with a bow at each corner by which the 
rider steadies himself. By the driver's advice, I sat on the "starboard" 
side of the little beast. We ' proceeded by way of the Flamengoz, a strag- 
gling village on the outskirts of Horta, once settled by Flemings, and the 
most attractive part of Fayal. Much of it lies along the course of a tor- 
rent deeply worn in a lava bed. At one picturesque spot a brown stone 
bridge spans the torrent with several arches ; under them a small thread 
of water now percolated, in which merry-voiced girls were washing their 
clothes. Beyond the bridge, on a hill, stands a white church, from whose 
steps a superb prospect is gained. Pico rises in the background, gar- 
landed with delicate clouds, yet towering as if close at hand ; between the 
two islands lies the port, the roofs of Horta, and then the nearer hills 
which form the gorge through which runs the river, overhung with foli- 
age in tropical variety and luxuriance. Here we left the good macadam- 
ized road, and struck into narrow bridle-paths. The cultivated fields were 
everywhere enclosed by walls or hedges of the Hortensia, profusely cov- 
ered with massy clusters of white 'and purple flowers. Gradually we left 
all signs of civilization, and struck into a solitude, the donkey carefully 
picking a precarious foothold over lava soil scooped out, furrowed, ribbed 
and broken by the winter rains in the most inconceivable manner. 

After several hours we reached the mouth of the crater, seven miles 
from Horta, and 3335 feet above the sea. Making the donkey fast to a 
bush, we descended into the crater, a feat more easily mentioned than ac- 
complished, for it is 1700 feet to the bottom, and the sides are so precipitous 
and broken as to make the descent hazardous without a guide. A young 
American was killed some years ago going doMm into this abyss. The 
floor of the crater is overgrown with dry yet sponge-like moss, giving to 
the feet the sensation of a heavy Turkey carpet. Near the centre is a pool, 
tawny and turbid, of unknown depth, and close to it rises a smaller crater, 
resembling in size and appearance the liana-draped, age-hoary teocallis in 
the jungles of Yucatan. A few frogs, not in awe of the sublime loneli- 
ness of the spot once the scene of belching fires and subterranean thun- 
ders, gave an occasional croak by the edge of little brooks wimpling dowm 
from the clefts in the rocks. Before we began the ascent, the clouds came 
creeping over the edges of the precipices, assuming the form of water-falls 
dropping into space in eternal silence. This magnificent volcanic valley 
is nearly six miles in circumference and over a mile in its largest diam- 
eter, but so symmetrical is its form that it is with difficulty one can realize 
its depth and extent. 



THE AZORES. 43 

Before we left Fayal, I had time also to ascend Pico Peak, which is 
the central point and most interesting feature of the Azores. I crossed 
the strait in one of the feluccas which ply daily between the islands. The 
spirited action of the saucy little craft filled one with exuberant joy, her 
immense lateen- sails swelling and straining in the breeze as she drove 
careening over the waves with a bone in her mouth, and now and again a 
dash of spray over the bow ; the groups of chatting, gayly dressed, black- 
eyed peasants clustered on the deck were also charmingly picturesque; sea 
and sky were a deep azure ; and before us, a stupendous outline clean cut 
against the sky, towered the Peak, solitary and sublime. 

Immediately on landing, I sent men in different directions to procure 
a mule for the ascent. But four-legged animals are scarce at Pico; and 
it was several hours before one could be found, and then only for the fol- 
lowing day. This was bad. The time generally allowed for the ascent is 
two days, while the time at my disposal was short, and the weather looked 
threatening. Without clear weather, it is effort thrown away to climb the 
Peak. I decided to accomplish the trip in one day, and then walked up 
two miles to the village of Yellas, with Jorge, my guide, in whose house 
I passed the night. The village lies on one of the lower slopes of the 
mountain. It has no water, and the women bring all the water from 
wells at the sea-side two miles away, sometimes making the trip several 
times daily. They carry the jars on their heads, which gives them the 
stateliness of caryatides. 

The women of Pico are the handsomest of the Azores, finely formed, 
and with features of almost classic beauty. Their wealth of massive black 
tresses are done up in a simple beautiful braid, crowned by a straw hat or 
a scarlet cloth. Blithe and buxom, they seem to bear the burdens of life 
right merrily. Where ignorance is bliss, there is indeed no greater folly 
than to be wise. 

Jorge's house was the best in the village; it consisted of three small 
rooms and a porch, over a half-story containing a hand-mill and a stable. 
The garden was stocked with yams, potatoes, grape- vines, and fig and 
orange trees, fenced in with brown walls of loose lava, which looks mas- 
sive and heavy, but is light and spongy, and is so irregularly shaped that 
walls made of it cling together without mortar. The villagers collected 
at Jorge's in the evening to gossip by the light of a feeble glim. They 
were ranged on the floor around the apartment, like sachems in a wig- 
wam. The pipe of peace went around in the form of a meagre cigarette ; 
each took a moderate whiff. Tobacco is too precious an article in the isl- 
ands to be indulged in too prodigally by most of the people. After a 



4-i THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

■while I was able to roll up in a blanket on the floor ; but sleep was a 
scarce commodity that night. A baby with the colic, who at first excited 
my sympathy, finally aroused in me less amiable feelings. But the Eng- 
lish language has a pliability and richness suitable to all occasions. To- 
ward morning I caught a few winks, but was soon awaked by the girls 
tripping merrily by after the daily rations of water. Then came the 
mule. It was nearly four o'clock. Hastily despatching a cold breakfast, 
I mounted. The saddle was a crazy piece of antiquity; but it held to- 
gether as long as I needed it. The muleteer and Jorge, the guide, fol- 
lowed on foot ; and as we went on we were accompanied part of the way 
by villagers going out to work in the fields. The morning was glorious. 
Bay, oleander, and arbutus hedged the road ; the whistle of blackbirds 
was heard far and near ; sometimes we flushed a partridge or started a 
rabbit. The truncated outline of the cone was wreathed by light, rosy 
clouds, and its summit burned like a living coal in the glow of the rising 
sun, while the lower part was still hidden in shadow and mist. It seemed 
a huge altar on which the Titans of old were sacrificing their morifing 
oblations to the Lord of the Universe. 

After climbing four thousand feet, I was obliged to leave the mule 
behind in charge of a neat-herd, and scramble up the unbroken slope of 
the cone on foot. It was a very hard climb of over three thousand feet, 
without a break, as if one were to creep up a dome of that size. At one 
o'clock, after great exertion, we scaled the rocky wall of the first crater, 
and looked into it as one might look down into an ancient fortress from 
its battlements. The sides are perpendicular, averaging seventy feet in 
height, except in one place, where a breach has been made. It is ap- 
parently about three hundred yards in diameter, and offers the most com- 
plete spectacle of desolation I ever beheld. Masses of scoria? and black- 
ened lava lie strewn around its floor, like fragments of shattered towers ; 
nowhere is there the slightest sign of life ; not a bird, not a blade of grass, 
is to be seen. On one side is the little peak, soaring like the grim keep of 
a castle. It is three hundred feet high, and stands on a platform of lava, 
which is again supported by long buttresses, rugged and twisted, like the 
writhing limbs of tremendous dragons suddenly stiffened into stone. 

The heat was intense in the crater, and my thirst was such as no wine 
could quench. Fortunately, we found a bowl-like hollow in the interior 
of a cleft of a lava bowlder, in which was mysteriously concealed a small 
pool of water, icy cold, enclosed like the bulb of air in a spirit-level. The 
aperture was just large enough to admit head and shoulders. Outside of 
the rock was the heat of the tropics, and within the coolness of winter. 



THE AZORES. 45 

Having lunched, we grappled with the little peak, an undertaking at- 
tended with some hazard, owing to its height, its excessive steepness, and 
the character of its formation. It is composed of loose blocks of lava, 
which are easily detached, and roll bounding to the bottom, threatening 
the footing or the head of the climber. When half-way up, Jorge, who 
was in advance, dislodged a large stone. "Look out!" he cried. I dodged 
my head just in time, but, instinctively raising my arm, received a blow 
which disabled my hand for several days. On reaching the top, we found 
a slightly depressed crater, perhaps twenty-five feet in diameter, out of 
which issued a thin, hot vapor. The stones were sufficiently warm to 
make a change of position agreeable. Sitting on the edge of this pin- 
nacle, I felt much as one might if seated at the top of a lofty chimney. 
The long slope below seemed so perpendicular that it suggested the illu- 
sion that I might descend over seven thousand feet before touching bot- 
tom, if I chose to take the leap. I felt no sensation of giddiness, but a 
certain awesome solemnity, such as one might realize if he were on the 
apex of creation. One can only experience this effect on mountains which 
stand entirely isolated, like Pico, between sky and sea, and terminate, like 
it, in a minute point. Three thousand feet below, the scattered white 
clouds lay dreamily, like a fleet becalmed ; and, below T or beyond them, 
Fayal and most of the group of nine islands were seen inlaid on the ame- 
thystine floor of the vast ocean. The meeting of the sea and sky line was 
discerned with difficulty. The blue overhead was an intense and almost 
opaque cobalt. We seemed on that point to be ensphered midway be- 
tween two semiglobes whose edges were joined at the horizon. 

The descent naturally occupied less time, and at dusk we re-entered 
Yellas. The villagers were chatting in their doors; a guitar tinkled 
in the still air. But the tramp of the mule clattering down the steep 
streets, a sound unusual at Vellas, produced a sensation. A lad, half wild 
with excitement, dashed .ahead, shouting, " The American is coming!" 
Much laughter and merriment ensued ; once more the} 7 all gathered at 
Jorge's house, and, tired as I was, I could get no sleep for some hours. 

Returning to Horta at sunrise on the following morning, I found an 
invitation awaiting me to breakfast at the house of Count Santa Anna. 
Performing a hasty toilet, I was in season for a charming stroll about the 
grounds. An elegant breakfast followed, graced by the ladies and gentle- 
men of his household. The count is a bachelor, but his sister's family re- 
sides with him. The Jehu had by this time returned from San Jorge, 
and, when breakfast Avas over, I hastened on board: we made all sail, and 
glided past Monte de Guia out to sea, bound to St. Michael. The distance 



40 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

is one hundred and fifty-six miles, east-south-east, and it took us just three 
days and four nights to do it in, owing to calms and head-winds. 

On a fine morning in August we came up with the city Ponta Delgada. 
The appearance of the place — lying on a gentle slope, flanked by luxuriant 
orange plantations and volcanic peaks sharpty serrated — is very pleasing 
from the sea. Other towns of the same size are also visible here and 
there, and the general aspect of the island is more prosperous and inviting 
than the shores of the other islands of the group. In effect, there is anch- 
orage along nearly the whole southern side of St. Michael, although with 
southerly gales vessels are forced to make an offing. A breakwater was 
begun twelve years ago, on the outer lip of a sunken crater, in ten fathoms 
of water; it is expected to afford shelter for one hundred sail, and is 
now gradually approaching completion, in spite of the terrible shocks of 
the winter surges, which have several times opened large breaches. 

The city is faced with a sea-wall, and the landing is within a hand- 
some jetty, forming a square, snug boat-harbor. This, with the archways, 
church-tower, and entrance-gate, combines to impress one who lands there 
for the first time with an idea of local wealth and prosperity not entirely 
belied by further inspection of the place. Ponta Delgada is regularly 
laid out and neatly kept, the streets are ivnderd rained and well paved, and 
the roads into the country are macadamized, and afford excellent drive- 
ways. The churches are numerous, and generally well built. The value 
of the arch and tower is understood at St. Michael. The cathedral is an 
imposing edifice ; the belfry simple, but grand in its proportions, and hung 
with a chime of sweet-toned bells. Less can be said for the interior, al- 
though it is not without merit. I observed on the wal'ls a Papal dispen- 
sation granting forty days' indulgence to those who should, in however 
small degree, contribute to the repairs on the roof. A quaint effect is 
added to the exterior by human -faced, lion -bodied gargoyles springing 
from the rear angles under the eaves. With the Church of San Francisco 
is connected a nunnery, whose windows are guarded by massive iron grat- 
ings; it resembles a jail for the confinement of the w T orst criminals rather 
than an asylum where pure young virgins flee from a wicked world to 
meditate on the Paraclete and Paradise. The convents in the Azores had 
become so corrupt that Dom Pedro I. abolished them some thirty years 
ago, as before stated; but this one is allowed to exist by limitation. Priests 
are numerous in the streets, which are otherwise cheerful and attractive. 

There is considerable traffic between town and country, and much 
passing of peasants driving loaded asses and mules ; and the rattle of 
crazy hacks, furiously driven and drawn by refractory mules, is not uncom- 



THE AZORES. 



47 



nion. Once a day an antique omnibus runs to Alagoa, a town nine miles 
off down the coast. Some really handsome equipages, with attendants 
in livery, are occasionally seen. St. Michael boasts a baron, a viscount, 
and a marquis, all of its own raising. The mansions and gardens of these 
gentry are sumptuous, well laid out and stocked with exotics, noticeable 
among them the Norfolk pine. But the orange plantations are the glory 
of St. Michael, and they spread over the whole island. Every plantation 
is surrounded by high walls of lava stone, within which are again planted 
rows of the insenso-tree, which forms a dense growth to a considerable 
height; and, protected by this double enclosure from the furious winter 
winds — for the Azores are in the line of the severest Atlantic gales — the 
orange-tree spreads its glossy foliage and bears its golden fruit; and an 
ample crop it is : 360,000 boxes, twenty to the ton, are annually exported. 
By the middle of October the long procession of mules and donkeys be- 
gins to wend down the mountains to the city, laden with the fruit which 
is to gladden many firesides in foreign lands. At the same time the 
schooners and barks begin to arrive from abroad to waft spicy odors to 
the wharves of England and America. This continues until April. 




MARKET-DAY IX FATAL. 



Besides the activity of the orange season, Fridays and Sundays, being 
the market-days, are always blithesome occasions, full of bustle and life. 



*8 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

The people collect then in holiday attire to buy, sell, or exchange their 
wares, and one has a good opportunity of observing all classes in St. Mi- 
chael. The people of that island more nearly resemble the parent stock 
than the natives of the other islands. The men are handsome, and the 
children are often exceedingly beautiful ; but of the women less can be 
said. Pleasing in maidenhood, early child-bearing and hard labor in the 
fields soon rob them of their charms. The heavy capote is very common 
there, and the streets look as if every other woman were a nun, giving 
a sombre effect to street scenes, which, indeed, lack a certain something 
to give them character. On analyzing the question, I came to the con- 
clusion that the addition of more variety and brilliance of color in the 
dress of the people is what is wanting to complete the effect one would 
expect in a place like Ponta Delgada. The population of St. Michael is 
about 115,000, of which Ponta Delgada contains 25,000. The females 
are 8000 in excess, owing partly to the lawful emigration of males to 
Portugal and Brazil. 

Twenty-five miles from the capital are the thermal springs called the 
Furnas, wdiose waters, strongly impregnated with sulphur, have been a 
sanitary resort for many years. They are reached by an excellent car- 
riage-road, winding through the most romantic scenery. These springs 
are apparently a sort of safety-valve for the volcanoes of the Azores. 
Although Pico is now half comatose, it has been active within a hundred 
years, while it is scarcely thirty years since St. George was the scene of a 
terrific catastrophe, the whole summit of that island appearing to be more 
or less overrun by subterranean fires and melted lava, bursting forth from 
many sources, and nearly depopulating it. Nor is it uncommon for islands 
to spring up in those waters, especially in the vicinity of St. Michael, and, 
after a short stay above the surface of the ocean, to disappear as suddenly 
as they rose. 

After a stay of some days, we again embarked on the Jehu, which, 
during the interval, had been lying off and on in charge of the mate, and 
started for home by way of Pico and St. George. Tow r ard morning we 
took a breeze from sou'-west, and the bark boomed along at a spanking 
rate. A heavy squall brought us down to close-reefed topsails, and under 
this canvas we flew till noon, when "Land ho-o-o-o !" was the cry; and 
there, sure enough, was the loom of land through the mist on the weather 
bow. But what land ? Pico was the island for which we were bound, 
but some said this was Terceira; others, St. George. Yet how we could 
have deviated so as to make either of these in a run of only a hundred 
miles it was impossible to say. An hour brought us near enough to ascer- 



THE AZOKES. 



49 



tain that it was St. George, and that we were over twenty miles out of our 
course. Had the gale continued or the fog not lifted, the consequences 
might have been serious. It turned out that a chisel had been thought- 
lessly left in the binnacle, thus affecting the needle. St. George looked 
very grand and grim with the thunderous evening clouds enshrouding his 
brow, lit here and there by fiery gleams of sunset. For two days we 
drifted with the currents back and forth in a calm, between Pico, St. 
George, and Terceira. Angra, the chief town of Terceira, is the residence 
of the Governor of the Azores. Here also is a college, with law and theo- 




HOSPITAL OF VILLAFRANCA DO CAJIFO, FATAL. 



logical schools attached. The island produces oranges abundantly, and is 
noteworthy as the seat of intellect and the residence of the creme de la 
creme of Azorean society. A great naval battle for the possession of Ter- 
ceira was fought off Port Angra, in the sixteenth century, between the 
Spaniards and the Franco-Portuguese fleet. 

St. George, without presenting any striking isolated peak, is very high 
land throughout its extent of thirty miles, falling everywhere sheer down 
to the water from a plateau, except at the southern end, where it slopes 
very slightly, and its precipitous sides are deeply grooved. The villages 
are small and the population is thin, yet more than enough to till the 



50 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

arable soil. Wheat, cattle, and cheese are the products of this island. 
I>eef and fowls are cheap, and canaries are plenty, as on all the islands 
of the group, of a russet-green hue, but warbling a full rich song: they 
serve a double purpose in the Azores — to sing and to furnish tidbits — 
and very delicate they are, whether in a cage or on a platter. 

On the 21st, we approached St. George, and were boarded by a boat, 
which had eluded the revenue officers and come in quest of tobacco. 
Large quantities of the weed are smuggled into the islands, often by 
whale-ships, and at an enormous profit. In the evening signal-lights were 
seen both on Pico and St. George, indicating that fugitives were there 
waiting, as by previous arrangement, to steal off to the vessel ; but she again 
drifted too far out with the current in the calm. Pico Peak showed mas'- 
nificently at sundown, in one of the most superb sunsets I have seen at 
sea. On the 22d, we stood close in to Pico, giving the agent of the Inter- 
national Transatlantic Submarine Railroad an opportunity to identify the 
vessel and mature his plans. We also saw a revenue-boat keeping careful 
guard along the shore. About nine in the evening a brilliant flame, the 
concerted signal, appeared, flashing at intervals on St. George. We stood 
in, and at about ten a light suddenly shone out close to the ship, and a 
boat was soon vaguely discerned. 

As they came up, " Is this an American ship ?" was the hail. 

"Yes." 

" What's her name ?" 

" The Surprise.'''' 

" Is she going to Boston ?" 

"Yes." 

" Does she take passengers ?" 

"Yes." 

Then they pulled along-side and boarded us, bringing four passengers. 
Soon after midnight another boat came up with four more passengers, 
and informed us that several were waiting for us on the other side of St. 
George, where no guards are kept, owing to its inaccessible character, so 
that the embarkation can take place there in the daytime ; although there 
they have to slip down steep ledges, and sometimes swim several yards 
through the surf to the boats, as the sea is often too high to allow a boat 
to land. An English brig had taken off eighty from that side a few days 
before our arrival. 

At daylight we squared away for the eastern side of St. George, run- 
ning under its lee with a very stiff breeze, coming down the gorges in ter- 
rific squalls — and what high land that is! From the central ridge the 



THE AZORES. 



51 



land slopes gently two miles, and then, along its whole length of thirty 
miles, falls almost perpendicularly from 900 to 1500 feet, usually nearer 
the latter than the former figure ; a tremendous spectacle, as mile after 
mile was passed, and still no break in that Titanic wall, corrugated with 
black gorges and gulches. It made the scene still more impressive to ob- 
serve how every available patch of earth is everywhere terraced and culti- 
vated by man, who here seems fitted both with wings and claws to till the 
soil on bits of slope, at an angle of sixty-five degrees, to the very edge of 
precipices that drop hundreds of feet to the ever-beating surge below. 




JETTY OF PONTA DELGADA, ST. MICHAEL. 



About noon the treacherous wind lulled, and the bark began setting in 
toward the land. By great effort and by skilfully seizing a flaw, they 
contrived to work her out into the wind again and into control. Then 
smoke was seen on Ponto Ferrado. We sent off a boat, which met another 
coming off with a single passenger. The boatmen said others were wait- 
ing to come on board, and therefore returned ; but as they were scattered 
about the neighborhood secretly bidding their friends farewell, it might 
take some time to collect them, so we braced the yards and stood over 
toward Graciosa, or the Beautiful Isle — rightly named, if one may judge 
from its appearance as seen from the sea. When we again stood in for 
St. George, a sail loomed up suddenly close to us, white in the light of the 
moon. Four more passengers now arrived, and the boat was then hauled 



52 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

on deck with its crew, including the agent of the I. T. S. R. R. We lay 
off and on all night, the squalls blowing with the fury of pamperos. A 
signal-light was seen several times; but at sunrise such a swell was rolling 
in, that landing was out of the question, and we stood on beyond the north- 
ern end of the island. After a few hours we again headed for the ren- 
dezvous, passing near to " Padre," a colossal statue 223 feet in height, off 
Rosales Point, hewn by nature out of the rock, and vividly resembling a 
venerable priest, kneeling, in his vestments. A boat was sent ashore, but 
not returning when expected, its loss in the surf was surmised, and an- 
other boat was sent in quest of it. After a long interval, both boats re- 
turned with only three passengers. A smoke being then discerned on 
another spot, a boat was again sent off, returning this time with a young 
fellow who had been burning brushwood for us all night. 

But in the mean time those on board were fully occupied. In his 
anxiety to procure passengers, the captain had allowed his ship to come 
too near the land, which is so lofty that when it is blowing a gale of wind 
off shore, it is often a dead calm close in ; and it is even more hazardous 
to be becalmed off St. George than off the other islands, because on that 
side, in addition to the currents, there is, even in the mildest weather, a 
heavy northerly swell tumbling in. About five it w r as evident that the 
ship was drifting landward ; and it became necessary to put forth every 
effort, as we were nearing the cliffs fast. The three boats were got out, 
and all hands, including the male steerage passengers, were put to rowing, 
without, however, making any impression in checking the dead-drift of 
the bark shoreward. Black overhead loomed the tremendous cliffs, many 
hundred feet above us, frowning under a heavy canopy of cloud that grad- 
ually veiled the upper crags. Night was at hand, the barometer was low, 
and all signs were ominous of a change of weather. The writer was at 
the wheel, with orders to watch for the first breath of air, to bring the ves- 
sel up to it. There seemed a little trying to come from the north-east, but 
not enough to stop the ship in her drift toward the rocks, where the long 
ocean-swell broke with a sullen and ceaseless thunder. At last there came 
a smart shower, and then a gentle, almost imperceptible, flaw. " Keep her 
up !" roared the captain, half beside himself with anxiety. The air came 
again ; the sails began to fill, and, gathering way, the bark again responded 
to the helm. Gradually she drew off shore, the boats were called in, and 
slowly we gained two miles, and began to feel more easy, although not 
realizing until later from what a shipwreck we had escaped. We were all 
at supper, when the cabin-boy came down and said, " It looks awful black 
to windward!" The cabin was cleared in half a wink; then the ship rung 



THE AZORES. 



53 



with the tramp of feet, the frantic shouts of the officers, the creaking of 
blocks, and the furious flapping of sails. The squall was very fierce. Not 
having sea-room for running off before it, as is usual with square-rigged 
vessels in such an emergency, the vessel was brought up in the wind's eye 
just in time to save going on her beam-ends or carrying away her spars. 
Either contingency would have resulted in the ship's drifting directly on 
the rocks, and going to pieces in the wild sea which accompanied the 
squall. But, though stag- 
gering under the blow, 
everything held ; and 
having rolling topsails 
(a priceless invention), 
the Jehu was soon un- 
der close-reefed top-sails 
and courses, and with 
this canvas managed to 
claw off ten miles of 
lee-shore and make an 
offino- 

It blew a gale of 
wind all night, backing 
more into the north at 
daylight, when we con- 
cluded to run for a lee under Fayal, thirty miles away. The wind shift- 
ing several points, we made instead for the strait between Pico and St. 
George, and hove to under Pico, the base of whose stupendous cone was 
wreathed with luminous clouds, running up the weather slope like surf 
dashing up the sides of a light-house. During the afternoon I saw at one 
time seven rainbows in a row, each brilliant and defined with perfect dis- 
tinctness. The wind shifting to sou'-west, and blowing very fresh, we lay 
to around Pico until the 27th, when, although the weather was still very 
dubious, we again ran for the north side of St. George to land the agent 
of the I. T. S. K. P., who would land nowhere else, lest he be nabbed by 
the guarda-costa, and made to pay dear for running Portuguese off the 
islands. A boat with the second mate and the best half of the crew was 
sent ashore to land the agent, while we stood out to sea again, taking in 
sail after sail as we again passed Padre, and having a hard day's work of 
it, short-handed as we were. Mr. Looby, the mate, a very valuable officer, 
on whom, owing to his efficiency, the safety of the ship depended much 
more than on the captain, had not slept four out of the last forty-six hours. 




A ST. MICHAEL WAGON. 



54 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

Toward night we stood in and picked, up the boat. Her erew were in high 
dudgeon, on account of the perilous expedition upon which they had been 
sent ; but the captain had the good sense to hold his peace, treated the 
men to a stiff glass of grog, and the affair blew over. We lay off and on 
all night off St. George, and the next day ran out past Pico, returning be- 
tween the two islands at sundown. It was now calm, the moon near the 
full ; and soon the expected beacon-flame was seen blazing at intervals at 
Calheta on St. George. We ran in and showed our light in the riffffinsr, 
and about eleven a large launch appeared bringing thirteen passengers, 
including several women and children. This completed, the number we 
could get from St. George, full twenty less than promised. But the season 
was advanced, and the supply was running low, over one thousand having 
already left the islands during the summer, of whom the Jehu had taken 
one hundred and twenty on her previous trip. 

After dodging in this unsatisfactory way around Pico for several days 
lunger, and finding at last that some unknown cause prevented the escape 
of those we were expecting from that island, we put the helm up and bore 
away for Flores. A glorious breeze on the quarter took us in thirteen 
hours to Santa Cruz, where we again landed and remained three daj's, 
which were passed with much pleasure rambling about the island, enjoy- 
ing its unique scenery and its hospitable cheer, for which I am much in- 
debted to the unaffected kindness of Dr. M'Kay, the English consul, and 
his amiable family ; to Senhor Pedro Almeida, German consular agent ; 
Senhor Constantine Almeida, collector of the revenues, and other gentle- 
men. The bark meantime lay off and on, taking on board water and 
provisions, and thirty-five more passengers, who had many of them been 
in America and were all able to obtain passports. Those who were al- 
ready on board were kept out of sight until after pratique was obtained; 
after that it was easy enough, and quite en regie, for the guard left in the 
ship to wink hard when he saw strange faces from time to time creeping- 
out of the steerage. 

It was after nightfall of the 5th of September when everything was 
ready, and we bade farewell to our kind friends, who accompanied us to 
the beach. The islesmen carried us on their shoulders to the boat and 
shoved off. We rode over the rollers at the entrance of the little port, and 
pushed out on the wide ocean to seek the Jehu, which had drifted with the 
current in the calm nine miles to the southward. Heartily the eight boat- 
men bent to the huge oars, accompanying the movement with a rude song. 
The night was perfectly still, but cloudy. Seaward a thin mist veiled the 
mysterious deep ; on our right the steep crags of Flores loomed high and 



THE AZORES. 55 

dim; the long swell of the ever-panting bosom of the ocean was like glass; 
and jet from the hollow caves came the eternal boom of the surf-billows 
that have beaten that wild coast ever since it first arose to view. At 
length the ship's light became faintly visible, and then the vague outline 
of spars and sails duskily limned against the sky, and forms moving eerily 
before the lights ; and then was heard the sighing of the sails languidly 
swinging to and fro with the idle roll of the phantom-like bark; then the 
rush of feet on deck ; the shrill orders of the mate ; the shadow of the 
great fabric above us; the flash of a broad light in our dazzled eyes; the 
grappling with the ship ; the hurried scramble up her black sides into the 
snug security and comfort of a good, trim clipper and a cosy cabin ; and a 
rousing cup of tea, and a brace of as tender and savorily roasted ducks as 
ever tempted an anchorite to forego a while his crust and acorns. 

For eight days we had mild, fair winds, and the guitar and the love- 
song rung through the ship early and late. By the starlight the steerage 
passengers gathered in the gangway and listened to the vocal songs of isl- 
and improvisatores. One, with a guitar, sung a couplet ending in a female 
rhyme, and another responded, repeating the last line and adding a coup- 
let of his own, the subject constantly varying, with allusions to whatever 
most interested singers and listeners. The versification was smooth, and 
the refrain, although monotonous, was not unmusical. Evidently we here 
had poetry in its bucolic form, as exemplified by Theocritus and Virgil ; 
the Azorean bards gave us genuine eclogues even if rude. This blended 
form of poetry and music, still common in the East, is undoubtedly the 
earliest mode -in which the twin arts found expression. One night we had 
a sort of rustic ball in the steerage ; merry was the music of violin and 
guitar, and lively was the dancing by the feeble light of a smoky lantern, 
which gave a Kembrandtesque effect to this unique and romantic scene. 

An affray between the second mate and the cook broke the calm in 
which we were basking, and seemed a fit prelude to the boisterous weath- 
er which attended us during the last fortnight of the passage. Captain 
Brown was playing cribbage with Mrs. Brown on the quarter-deck one 
afternoon ; most of the steerage passengers were lying here and there sun- 
ning themselves, or embroidering and chatting together. The watch were 
engaged splicing ropes or patching old sails; and all was so peaceful that 
the musical plash of the water could be heard against the ship's side as 
she slipped along at a lazy six knots an hour. Suddenly angry voices, 
sharp and loud, disturbed the quiet, and in an instant Manuel, the second 
mate, had the cook on his back in the gangway and was ferociously thump- 
ing his head on the deck. All was then in an uproar. The combatants 



56 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

were from different islands ; and while the women set up a wailing and 
shrieking, swaying their bodies back and forth in wild frenzy, the men, 
both crew and steerage passengers, began to take sides. In the mean time 
Captain Brown went on with his game, willing to let them tight it out 
among themselves until further developments. But the twitching of his 
face showed that he was keeping half an eye to windward. The crisis 
arrived when the man at the wheel struck eight bells, and the man who 
was to relieve him, instead of going aft, lingered to look on, and perhaps 
take a hand in the tight. " What are you doing there ? why don't you go 
to your wheel ?" roared the captain to him. " I will when I'm ready, sir," 
answered the half-mutinous Portuguese. Up leaped the captain, standing 
six feet two in his stockings, and heavily built at that; and as if the fire 
of youth were once more galloping through his veins for a moment, with 
three strides he reached the man, and hissing in his ear with almost Sa- 
tanic passion, " You'll come when ye are read} 7 , will ye ! You go to that 
wheel, or by the living God I'll dash your brains out !" and clutching him 
by the nape of the neck, as one might hold a wet rag or a limp puppy, he 
fairly lifted him along on his toes to the wheel and planted him there. 
This action seemed to bring most of the rioters to their senses ; they were 
made instantly conscious that they were going much further than they 
ever intended. The second mate and the cook were separated, and the 
former returned to the forecastle to continue the splicing of a pennant. 
But the cook, burning for vengeance, seized a cleaver, and, creeping 
stealthily up behind Manuel, was just about to split his skull, when the 
others interposed and caught the uplifted arm. A sullen peace was 
patched up after this affray, and the heavy weather which succeeded 
tended to distract the attention from a quarrel, which, as is not unusual, 
had originated about a woman — " There was a woman in the case." 

Amidst a succession of variable gales, accompanied by enormous seas, 
we now worked our way laboriously toward Boston, adding a very narrow 
escape from destruction by fire to the other incidents of the voyage. On 
the twenty-third day we made Thatcher's Island in a fog, ran down to the 
Graves under a stiff breeze, and, rounding Boston Light, cast anchor off 
the quarantine — the first time our anchor had touched bottom since we 
had sailed from India wharf on the 23d of July. 



THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 



57 



CHAPTER III. 



THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 



e * o l i 8 n c ir A V * e l 



fTMIE severest gale that had blown for several winters had lashed the 
-■- shores of Great Britain. The whole country was covered with un- 
wonted snows, and frozen by cold very unusual there. Many wrecks had 
occurred, and the Channel had, as usual, been swept by the tempest. A 
large steamer had foundered in its waters, and the costly breakwaters of 
Alderney and Jersey had been greatly damaged. Hardly had the waves 
yet subsided when the royal mail packet Southampton steamed down the 
Solent, past the Isle of Wight, at 
midnight, for the Channel Islands. 
But on getting out into the open sea 
we found the wind piping up again, 
and a high sea directly in our teeth. 
Accordingly, we put back, and lay 
till morning in Yarmouth Roads. 
The wind moderating at daylight, 
we weighed anchor and made a sec- 
ond attempt. All day it blew fresh, 
with cpiite "a lump of a sea" on; 
but toward night Alderney hove in 
sight, then the three light -houses, 
warning the mariner to give a wide 
berth to the Caskets, one of the most 
dangerous and most celebrated reefs 
in the Atlantic. On these rocks Prince William was lost, the only son of 
Henry I., after which event it is said the king never smiled again. In 
later times, the wreck of a Russian line-of-battle ship, and of the Eng- 
lish man-of-war Victory, with eleven hundred men on board, have, among 
other wrecks, given a melancholy celebrity to the Caskets. As Ave neared 
and passed this reef the waves became greatly larger and more broken, 
although the wind was less. This was explained as caused by the tides 




58 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

and counter-currents, which, owing to the very irregular character of the 
adjoining coast of Normandy and the numerous sunken ledges surround - 



ST. PETER'S PORT, GUERNSEY. 

ing the channel, combine with the extraordinary rise and fall of the tide 
to render navigation in this archipelago generally rough, and in the winter 
season hazardous. 

Picking her way carefully between the various pitfalls which line the 
entrance to St. Peter's Port, the steamer moored along-side the pier after 
nightfall. As I wound my way up the steep winding streets to my lodg- 
ings, it seemed as if I had fallen upon some old fortified rock town of the 
Middle Ages, and the impression was not altogether contradicted by in- 
spection of the place by daylight. St. Peter's Port has a population of 
16,000, females being in an excess of nearly a third, as is also the case in 
Jersey. It is built on a slope of considerable steepness, rising two hun- 
dred feet above the sea, and consists of the old and the new town. The 
former faces the port, and is fronted by a pleasant esplanade, ornamented 
witli trees and protected by a sea-wall. The port itself, originally built 
by Edward I., is entirely artificial, and has been enlarged in later years 
with great labor and expense. On a rock at the end of one of the piers 
stands Castle Cornet, a massive pile without much beauty, but dating back, 
it is said, to the Romans, and presenting various interesting additions since 
then. It suifered greatly, three hundred years ago, by the explosion of its 
powder-magazine, which was struck by lightning. The main pier or break- 
water lies at right angles to the waves of south-east gales, which are very 
savage in those waters. Nothing can be wilder than to see an immense 
breaker swooping down on the massive wall, and then dashing to a great 
height into the air, a gray ghostly mist that is immediately torn away by 



THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 



59 



the gale and swept across the harbor. Coming once from Jersey in a tre- 
mendous south-easter, the steamer 1 was on was taken by the undertow 
swelling up into a huge mound of green water as it fell off from the break- 
water; she was lifted high in air, whirled beyond control of the steersman, 
and came within an ace of crushing in her side against the lee breakwater 
at the entrance. They concluded not to venture out again that day, but 
lay snug until the next morning, when the weather moderated. 

On the esplanade is a really very fine colossal bronze statue of Prince 
Albert, and close at hand is a bronze plate stating that the queen and her 
consort landed on that spot in 1846. Immediately adjoining stands the 
parish church, as it is called, one of the oldest buildings in the islands, and 
in some respects the one most worthy of attention for architectural beauty. 
The style is Flamboyant Gothic, and it is enriched by beautiful stained 
windows. Wandering about the steep 
narrow lanes radiating from this 
choice and venerable relic of antiq- 
uity, one is astonished to find such 
stern massiveness in the buildings, 
such winding irregularity in the nar- 
row streets, and a steepness that ne- 
cessitates the most curious succession 
of long stairways, with cross -lanes 
meeting at the landings leading up 
to other narrower steps, all in the 
most quaint and unexpected manner. 

The new town may be said to 
begin with St. Paul's Chapel, and 
extends back of the old town north 
and south, generally more level, and 
always pleasing. While in the old 
town the houses are almost entirely 
of sombre granite, in the new they 
are as universally stuccoed, and tint- 
ed of a soft cream or brown tint. I 
think it would be difficult within the same space to find elsewhere so many 
charming streets and houses as in St. Peter's Port, giving an air of unos- 
tentatious competence. On almost every one is painted either the family 
name or some pleasing title in English or French, as "Merida Villa," or 
" Bon Repos," while in front are little garden-plots, neatly kept, or rows of 
ivied elms; ivy also clings lovingly to the surrounding walls. Everywhere 




MONUMENT TO PRINCE ALBEKT, UCERNSET. 



60 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 




MARKET-PLACE AT ST. 



PORT, GUERNSEY. 



one comes across these cheerful, home-like streets, leading to pleasant in- 
land views, with a central spire surmounting some time-worn chapel of 
past ages, where still the villagers meet with undiminished devotion. 

Not an unimportant addition to the pleasure a stranger takes in ram- 
bling about St. Peter's Port is the physical beauty of those he meets. We 
rind here the pure Norman race, the same as that which conquered Brit- 
ain, but, unlike that, scarcely mixed with Saxon or any other foreign 
blood. The men have a fresh, rnddy complexion, an honest, frank, good- 
humored but manly expression. The women have a skin remarkably fair, 
delicate, and clear, and features regular, expressive, and often beautiful. 
If but their eyes were as brilliant and eloquent as those of their sisters of 
Greece or America, they would present a nearly perfect type of female 
beauty. And the children are, of course, charming ; and even when they 
run out of the peasant houses in the remote districts and beg the passer- 
by for " doubles," there is a witchery about them seldom found in beggars 
elsewhere. But to speak of beggars in Guernsey is almost absurd, for 
extreme poverty is nearly unknown, while almost every tiller of the land 
cultivates a patrimony inherited from his ancestors for many centuries, 
and it is difficult to find evidences of squalor in the island. Even the 
houses of the peasantry are neatly kept, and a clean lace or cambric cur- 
tain veils the lower windows of the humblest cots, while flowers and vines 
are trained on the window-seat durins: the winter season. 



THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 



61 



The language is the old Norman French, pure and simple, although 
the dialect of Guernsey differs slightly from that of Jersey. English is 
now spoken by the better families, and often understood by those who do 
not use it among themselves. Services in many of the churches, and all 
proceedings in the courts and Legislature, are in French. Strange as it 
may seem to many, the islands are in their government very nearly inde- 
pendent of Great Britain, to which they owe a sort of feudal allegiance. 
In the transaction of their own affairs they are practically independent ; 
and, stranger still, Jersey has a government and laws of its own, while 
Guernsey, with the dependencies of Sark and Alderney, is ruled by still 
another code and Legislature. The Legislature consists in each case of a 
Senate-house, composed of the bailiff, or chief -justice, and the jurats, and 
the Assembly, including a larger number, called the States, but of less 
influence. The laws still smack of the rough emergencies of the Middle 
Ages, and are sometimes very arbitrary. Any one who chooses to set up 
a claim as creditor has a right, on his bare assertion, to seize either the 
person or the property of the alleged debtor, whether a native or a stran- 
ger, and the debtor has no redress ; on the other hand, the sheriff cannot 
enter a house unless the door be opened voluntarily, and, if he desire to 







CHILDREN BEGGING FOR "DOUBLES.' 



G2 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

arrest a man or woman, must sometimes resort to artifice to decoy the vic- 
tim into his clutches, as, for example, to send an ally into the house on 
some errand, who can open the door when the sheriff knocks. 

Notwithstanding this semi-independence, and the fact that French is 
the popular and official language, the queen boasts no subjects more loyal 
than these Normans of the Isles. To question their loyalty is to inflict 
insult almost amounting to injur}'. Some of England's most distinguished 
soldiers and sailors have come from these islands, where their names are 
cherished with patriotic pride. More than this: it is the common opinion 
here that, instead of being a fief of England, England herself owes her 
allegiance to the lords of the Norman Isles. For why : these islands are 
a part of Normandy, and were such when William of Normandy reduced 







DOLMEN AND MAKTELLO TOWER, GUERNSEY. 



Britain to subjection to Norman rule. During all the changes that have 
happened in the succeeding centuries, they alone have survived of the 
Norman territory, and have preserved a remnant of that race intact and 
unmixed which laid England at its feet and has kept her subject ever 
since. This is not so absurd, after all. It is quite as reasonable for these 
little islands to be lords paramount of England as for the comparatively 
small England to hold sway, as once she did, over the whole of North 
America, Hindostan, Australia, etc. ; and the apostolic succession of the 
Church is scarcely as clear as the descent of these Channel Islanders from 
the fellow-countrymen of William the Conqueror and Richard Cceur de 
Lion. It may be well to add here that one law exists in Guernsey advan- 
tageous to foreigners residing within its limits: they are not subject to the 
payment of taxes unless holding real estate in the island. 

The ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the group vras for several centuries 
under the control of the Bishop of Coutances; but after the doctrines of 



THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 63 

the Reformation were universally accepted by the people, they were trans- 
ferred to the diocese of the Bishop of Winchester, who is represented in 
each island by a dean. The islanders are, with few exceptions, good Prot- 
estants ; churches and chapels abound, and are generally w r ell attended. 
Puseyism and ritualism have, so far, made little progress here ; the Low- 
Church still continues popular, while the Non-conformists of all the lead- 
ing sects are in a flourishing condition. Superstition is gradually losing 
its hold, and much genuine and intelligent piety doubtless exists in some 
of these islands. But in the hamlets most remote from town, and among 
the older people, curious superstitions still obtain belief. On Christmas- 
night there are some even in St. Peter's Port who will on no account go 
to a well to draw water. Others will not venture into a stable at mid- 
night lest they should surprise the cattle, asses, and sheep on their knees 
worshipping the infant Saviour. A photographer is sometimes regarded 
as dealing in the black-art, and some refuse so far to compromise their 
character as to allow themselves to be photographed. In Guernsey, at St. 
George, is a well called "Holy Well," still visited by damsels, for on the 
surface of its waiters maidens are said to be able to see the face of their 
future husbands. In Jersey, near St. Clement's, is the Witches' Rock, 
where, it is said, the witches hold their Sabbath : the belief in witchcraft 
is not entirely extinct here. The marks on that rock are confidently as- 
serted to be the footprints made by his Satanic majesty during the visits 
which, it is to be feared, he makes quite too frequently in Jersey as well 
as elsewhere. 

One of the first things the stranger hears of, on coming to these islands, 
is the exclusiveness of the upper class, their hauteur and pride, and the 
contempt in which a tradesman is held. It is stated that a gentleman 
will be on very good terms with a tradesman in his shop, but will not 
condescend to recognize him in the street, while at balls the line is drawn 
with painful distinctness. On the other hand, it is said that the distinc- 
tion between the "sixties" and the "forties," as the two classes are termed, 
is wearing away. For an exclusiveness so much more pronounced than 
usual even in an English colony there was doubtless some ground origi- 
nally, arising from local causes, which is now forgotten. 

St. Sampson's is the only other town of any size in Guernsey after St. 
Peter's Port. It is named after some mythical Irish saint who came here 
in the sixth century. The place is about two miles from the capital, the 
road being by the sea, skirted with houses on one side and a sea-wall on 
the other, with here and there an old martello tower or a bit of an ivied 
castle to relieve the view. The port of St. Sampson's is a good one of its 



61 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



size. I counted as many as sixteen vessels there, loading with granite for 
England. The granite trade is the most important business of Guernsey. 




HAUTEVILLE, VICTOR HUGO'S LATE RESIDENCE IN GUERNSEY. 

The church of St. Sampson's was consecrated in 1111. It is the oldest 
building in the island, but offers no architectural attractions. More in- 
teresting are the Vale Castle adjoining and the Drnidic remains. Long 
before Hollo the Norman visited and conquered these islands, long before 
St. Sampson and Julius Caesar, the Celt had braved these perilous waters 
in his rude bark, and had scaled these almost inaccessible shores. Here, 
in those ages lost in the vague mists of unrecorded antiquity, the Druid 
practised his mysterious and bloody rites, and left numerous dolmens and 
cromlechs to tell the tale of a race that would otherwise have passed away 
from these isles into the utter silence of oblivion. Many of these remark- 
able vestiges have unfortunately been destroyed; of those which remain, 
one of the most interesting is at L'Ancresse Common, near St. Sampson's. 
It is covered by seven blocks, of which the largest, estimated to weigh 
thirty tons, is 17 feet long by 10 wide and 4£ feet thick, while the whole 
dolmen is 45 feet long by 13 in width. Under the floor were found one 
hundred and fifty urns, human bones, amulets, and the like. 



THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 



65 



St. Sampson's and the adjacent portion of the little island are also in- 
teresting, as many of the scenes of Victor Hugo's impossible "Toilers of 
the Sea" are laid there. There is no foundation for the story, so far as I 
can learn, but it is very well told, and gives incidentally vivid and often 
truthful descriptions of the scenery and people, and should be read by 
every one contemplating a visit to the islands. Passing through the old 
part of St. Peter's Port, by the markets (well stocked with most excellent 
fish, beef of a very superior quality, and fine vegetables), and proceeding 
in the rear of Fort George, one comes to Ilauteville, for many years the 
residence of Victor lingo. He is now in Paris, but his mansion remains 
furnished as he left it, in a manner highly characteristic of the distin- 
guished author. Keeping on in a southerly direction, one comes to the 
south side of the island, to the artist or scientific student searching for 
studies in geology or crustaceology, by far the most interesting part of 
Guernsey. As Guernsey is triangular in form, and only nine and a half 
miles on its longest side, much the pleasantest way to see its beauties is on 
foot. The southern coast is indented with several small but exceedingly 
beautiful bays, presenting a great variety of granitic forms, often almost 
volcanic in grotesqueness of shape, the cliffs rising sometimes over three 
hundred feet, often perpendicularly, from the silvery beaches of soft white 




GUARD-HOUSE DESCRIBED IN " TOILERS OF THE SEA." 

sand at their base. Wild caverns are hollowed into the sides of the cliffs, 
and rivulets, under the sylvan covert of many varieties of vines and shrubs, 
descend from the plateau above to these bays. Le Moulin Huet Pay, Icart 
Point, Petit Bot Bay, the Gouffre, Gull Rock, Pleinmont, are in turn the 

5 



OG 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



favorites of tlie enthusiast who visits them; but the stern, precipitous, thun- 
der-scarred Titanic cliffs of Pleinmont seemed to me the grandest place 
for a sea-view in Guernsey, and one of the finest to be found anywhere. 
Near the brow of these precipices Victor Hugo lays the scene of some of 
the most striking passages in his book. The small guard-house, which 
he represents to have been haunted, and makes the rendezvous of smug- 
glers, stands there still, entirely alone on the cliff. 

In plain sight from Guernsey in good weather, twenty miles from land 
to land, in an east- south-east direction, lies the island of Jersey, twelve 




THE CORBIERE AND LIGHT-HOUSE, JERSEY. 



miles long and seven wide, in area nearly twice the size of Guernsey. St. 
Helier's, the chief town, contains over 30,000 inhabitants, and is situated 
on the bay of St. Aubin, a most beautiful sheet of water, skirted by a level 
sand beach, flanked by high slopes and cliffs, and ornamented on the op- 
posite side by the charming little town of St. Aubin. The approach to St. 
Helier's from Guernsey is around the south-western angle of the island, 
bristling with reefs, showing their teeth to the mariner in a most threaten- 
ing manner. Of these the most formidable is the Corbicre, or " Sailors' 
Dread," the haunt of innumerable corbieres, or sea-crows. A light-house 
has recently been erected on the highest point, but it is a most formidable 



THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 67 

foe, as the writer can testify from personal observation, having passed it 
twice, in a heavy gale of wind from the south-east, much nearer than was 
agreeable. It must be owned that few spots present a liner opportunity 
for studying the effect of a raging sea on a rugged shore. The undertow 
meeting the waves formed by the wind, and again affected by the diverse 
currents and tides, which here rise forty feet, produces off the Corbiere, as 
off the Caskets, waves of extraordinary height, grandeur, and fury. 

The entrance to the port is very dangerous, owing to the reefs that 
skirt the channel and extend miles to the eastward. The harbor is almost 
entirely artificial. On the left, on entering the mole, is a high rock sur- 
mounted by the remains of a hermitage many centuries old. St. Helier, 
Hilary, or Ililarius, was one of those shadowy Irish saints whose apocry- 
phal adventures serve to adorn the saints' calendar with a species of pious 
"Arabian Nights" tales. From what is said of the good people of St. 
Ilelier's, one might infer that they had made the mistake of spelling his 
name Hilarious, and suited their lives to the name. To eschew the world, 
the flesh, and the devil is not enough the custom in this insular Paris. 
Just northward of the Hermitage, on a rock of some height, stands Eliza- 
beth Castle, a rather picturesque pile, of which a portion once formed an 
abbey. The town is not very pleasing near the port, the streets being nar- 
row and dark, but it rambles up on higher ground, and gradually assumes 
a more cheerful and inviting aspect. The shop windows often make a 
display of wares quite metropolitan. The markets are well worth a visit, 
and the market-women sometimes dress in a costume slightly peculiar, 
the only noticeable local costume in the islands. Generally the people of 
these islands dress and wear their hair with excellent taste, combining the 
English common-sense ideas of comfort with a certain French gracefulness 
that one too often fails to see in England. 

Odd as it may sound, there are two Lilliputian railroads in Jersey, 
starting from St. Helier's — one running five miles to Gorey, called the 
Eastern Railway, limited ; the other also extending about five miles, to St. 
Aubin. The latter cost a large amount, and swamped two or three local 
banks, producing much business prostration, and still further reducing the 
value of local currency. They seem to have been borrowing lessons from 
the United States in this island : paper money is issued in the most reck- 
less manner, and much enterprise, in the form of hollow bubbles of specu- 
lation, has enriched a few and impoverished many ; but the law, mindful 
of the claims of the sufferers and what it owes to the defense of society, 
has made an example of some of the leading offenders, from which we, in 
turn, can take a lesson from the island of Jersey. Considerable shipping 



68 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

is owned at St. Ilelier 1 ?, employed in foreign commerce or in the cod-fish- 
eries. 

After St. Helier's, or rather before it in interest among the objects to 
attract the visitor to Jersey, is Mount Orgueil Castle, at the village of 








MOUNT ORGUEIL CASTLE, JERSEY. 



Gorey, on the eastern coast It is now dismantled, and occupied only by 
a warder, but this makes it all the more attractive. Perched on a rock 
washed by the waves, the highest parapet of the venerable pile is 270 feet 
above the sea. Bnilt of stone the same as the rocks on which it is 
founded, it looks in many parts almost like a portion of the cliff. Setting 
aside the legends about Julius Caesar, who is made responsible for the par- 
entage of half the castles in Europe, there is no donbt that Mount Orgueil 
was occupied, if not built, by Rollo, the grandsire of William the Con- 
queror, whose escutcheon is still quite distinct over the main entrance to 
the keep. The crypt under the chapel, with a marble statue of the Vir- 
gin and Child, is in good preservation ; also the apartments occupied by 
Charles II. while seeking an asylum in this island, which remained faith- 
ful to the house of Stuart. These apartments have unfortunately been 
modernized recently for barracks, although untenanted at present. The 
guard-room where military courts were held is gone, but the adjoining cell 
where criminals were executed remains, with vestiges of a secret staircase 
which communicated with the keep and the sally-port. The dungeon is a 
ghastly place, but the most interesting spot in the castle is the dark, dismal 
cell, some six feet by four, with but a small loop-hole over the sea, where 
Prynne, the Puritan, was confined for three years. He had ample time to 
compose poetry or philosophies in these close quarters, although the scene 
was not altogether congenial to tranquil meditation. That rheumatism, 
megrims, and misanthropy did not quite corrode his bones or his intellect 



THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 



G9 



is evident from the fact that he tried to write verse, as shown by the fol- 
lowing doggerel lines, besides certain moral essays : 

"Mount Oi'gueil Castle is a lofty pile, 
Within the eastern part of Jersey Isle, 
Seated upon a rock full large and high, 
Close by the sea-shore, next to Nonnandie, 
Near to a sandy hay, where boats do ride 
Within a peere, sate from both wind and tide," etc. 

From the battlements rusty chains still hang, by which criminals in those 
rough ages were suspended alive. 

The view from the top commands the coast of Normandy and Brit- 
tany, including the Cathedral of Coutances on clear days, and, besides a 
prospect of the landscape of Jersey, gives one an idea of the dangers 
which beset the mariner in these waters. Scylla and Charybdis were 
very trifling affairs compared with the chevaux-de-frise of rocks under and 
above water which encircle these islands. If the sailor escapes the Cas- 
kets, the labyrinthine snares of the Little Russel are ready to trip him ; 




THE PINNACLE, JERSEY. 



or, if sailing for Jersey or St. Main, the St. Roqnier or the Hanways lie 
in wait for him, or the Paternosters, so terrible that they are thus called. 



70 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



perhaps, because there is nothing left to him who encounters their savage 
blows but to say his prayers. Escaping these, he still has the Corbiere or 




ST. BRELADE'S CHURCH, JERSEY. 

La Couchiere to avoid, and is not yet past dangers, for by no means the 
least savage yet lie near his path — the Chansseys, and the terrible Min- 
quieres, fronting the coast of France many miles, like a picket-guard ; and 
the most awful and solitary of all, the Douvres, like an advanced post in 
the ocean, solemn and implacable. The coast of Jersey is also every- 
where dangerous of approach, and rises in some places over three hun- 
dred feet on the northern side. Many very bold, striking cliffs are to be 
seen there, many rocks of remarkable form and size. The Jersey granite 
is considerably warmer in color than that of Guernsey, which renders its 
cliffs slightly less stern, and more in harmony with the vivid green of the 
surges that lash their feet and fill their vast caverns with the dread thun- 
ders of the storm. Boulet Bay, Greve de Lecq, Greve an Lancon, Cape 
Grosnez, the Pinnacle, or La Pule, at L'Etac, are a few of the many points 
deserving the investigation and the enthusiasm of the tourist, the natu- 
ralist, and the artist. St. Brelade's Church is the oldest building in Jer- 
sey, and is still well preserved, and quite picturesque. 



THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 71 

The interior of the island is altogether belied by its coast scenery, for 
it is highly rustic and idyllic, intersected everywhere by winding lanes 
almost concealed by hedges, and banks abounding in ferns, mosses, and 
thick-embowering vines and shrubs. So very winding and intricate, in 
fact, are the rural lanes of Jersey that a cause is assigned for it : the 
island was in early ages infested by pirates, who carried off the people as 
well as their goods to that degree that, in order to mislead the freebooters 
and make it easier to cut them off before they could reach the sea, the 
paths were twisted into a species of labyrinth. These lanes are, how- 
ever, gradually being replaced by more direct roads, and many of the old 
avenues of trees are falling before the axe of improvement or necessity. 

Twenty miles in a north-easterly direction from Guernsey lies Alder- 
ney, called by the Normans Aurigny, in most respects the least interesting 
of the group, although the abruptness with which its elevated table-land 
plunges into the ocean presents some very striking scenes. But the table- 
land itself is generally flat and bare, and the town of St. Anne's offers 
few points of interest. The island is but three miles and a half long. It 
claims our attention, however, on two accounts. On its north-western side 
is Braye Harbor, celebrated for the breakwater or mole which the English 
Government has been building for many years at an enormous expense as 
a naval station and harbor of refuge, to offset the corresponding port of 
Cherbourg in Normandy, and enable the English to command the Chan- 




VUAICKING. 



nel. This breakwater has, very strangely, been constructed in a most 
blundering manner, at least in its form, so that it presents itself to the sea 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



in such a way that it often suffers serious damage, and will eventually 
have to be altered. Alderney is also known for the breed of cows which 
bears its name. These are so called probably because the first ones ex- 




CREDX HARBOR, SARK. 



ported were from that island, although now very few that are sold as 
Alderney cows are directly from there. Those of that breed actually ex- 
ported from these islands are generally from Jersey, where the cattle are 
much the same as those of Alderney, small, with tapering heads, and of a 
delicate fawn-color. The Guernsey cow is esteemed by some even more 
highly than the Alderney ; it is rather larger, and more of a red, brindled, 
in color. The cows are milked three times daily, and the milk is churned 
without skimming. One pound of butter a day is by no means an uncom- 
mon yield for a good cow. The cow cabbage is made to reach a size so 
large that the leaves are used to wrap the butter in for market, while the 
stalks are varnished and armed with ferrules, and extensively used at St. 
llelier's for canes. The cows are very carefully coddled. The grass they 
feed on is highly enriched by the vraic, a species of sea-weed gathered 
from the reefs at low tide. There are two vraic harvests appointed by 
the Government — one in the spring, the other in August, although it is 
gathered at other times in small quantities. All hands turn out in the 
season with boats and carts, frequently at night, and it is a very lively, 
picturesque occupation, though often attended with risk and loss of life 
from the overloading of boats or sudden risino- of the tide. The cows are 



THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 



73 



always tethered when feeding : they eat less in this way, really giving 
mure milk than if glutted with food ; and while they are cropping the 
grass on one side of a field, it has time to spring up on the other side. 
When they have clone eating, they are at once removed from the snn into 
the shade. The breed is preserved from intermixture with other breeds 
by strong and arbitrary laws very carefully enforced. No cattle are al- 
lowed to enter the islands except for slaughter within a certain number 
of days, with the exception of oxen for draught. 

Opposite the eastern coast of Guernsey are the islands Ilerm and 
Jethou, about three miles distant from St. Peter's Port. The former is 
a mile and a half long, high, and in some places very bold, and possesses 
withal a sand beach abounding to a very unusual degree with shells of 
great variety and beauty. It is chiefly valuable, however, at present as a 
resort for sportsmen. Two or three houses are on the island, including a 
hotel, much resorted to in summer. Jethou is close at hand, but is much 




ENTKANCE 1 



REUX LANDING-PLACE, SAKK. 



smaller, and tenanted chiefly by rabbits. Beyond these islands, a little 
more to the southward, and only seven miles from Guernsey, is Sark, one 
of the smallest, most curious, most interesting, most elusive, most deso- 



74 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



late, most beautiful, most dangerous, most sublime, of the Atlantic islands. 
The old legend-makers, who have sung such weird tales of phantom isl- 




THE AUTELETS, SARK. 



ands, now appearing close at hand, then vanishing like enchantment, must 
have drawn their inspiration from watching Sark from Guernsey. On 
some days it is so distinct, and looks so near, that cliffs and houses and 
even men can be distinguished with the naked eye, and the soft play of 
light and shade and color on the rocks. The next day one shall look in 
the same direction, and he will discern with difficulty the faint hazy out- 
line of what seems an island forty miles away. The approach to the 
island is almost always hazardous, and except in the best weather no boat 
can land or leave, owing to the maelstrom-like velocity and turbulence of 
the tides, which rush raging in all directions around the shore, and fill the 
hollow caves with melancholy dirges, as for the many wrecked on that 
merciless coast. The late Seigneur of Sark was lost off Point Nez, and 
the present Seigneur and his family have had an escape bordering on 
the miraculous. Sometimes, even in summer, weeks will pass without the 
possibility of communicating with the island. In winter one must depend 
entirely on Sark boats of seven or eight tons burden, strong and weath- 
erly. In summer a small steamer plies in good weather between Guern- 
sey and Sark; but it cannot enter the port, which is doubtless the smallest 
in Europe. It is formed by a breakwater thrown across a miniature bay 



THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 



70 



called the Crenx. A little beach extends around the base of the vertical 
cliffs, and the interior of the island is only reached by an artificial open- 
ing actually pierced through the surrounding wall of granite. 

Sark is about three miles and a half long, and is divided into Great 
and Little Sark, the latter being a small peninsula at the southern end, 
united to the main portion by a curtain of rock some two hundred yards 
long, called the Coupe. It is three hundred feet above the sea, on one 
side literally vertical, on the other nearly so. The path at the top is not 
over five feet wide. It is said one person who lived on Little Sark never 
dared daring a lifetime to cross over the Coupe. Another old fellow, who 
used to like to take his grog of an evening in Great Sark, would, on re- 
turning to Little Sark at night, walk several times over a log that lay near 
the Coupe. If the result was satisfactory to his equilibrium, he would 
then venture to reel across the Coupe. The cliffs surrounding the island 
furnish an inexhaustible supply of the grand, the wild, the picturesque. 
The rocks are clothed with highly colored vines and lichens ; the magnili- 




CUEUX DU DEKKIBLE, SARK. 



cent caves, seemingly the abode of sea-fairies, teem with varied and beau- 
tiful submarine vegetation and diverse forms of life, shell-fish, mollusca, 



76 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



algre, and the like. Our limits forbid more than allusion to such spots 
as the Autelets, the Creux du Derrible, or D'lxcart Bay. 

The interior of the island is devoted to agriculture and pasturage, and, 




NATURAL BRIDGE, PONT-DU-MOULIN, SAKK. 

although not generally wooded, and destitute of streams, presents many 
choice bits of rural underwood. The avenue leading to the Seigneurie is 
exceedingly beautiful, and the building itself is a very pleasing object. 
The huts of the peasantry are often of the most massive construction, 
having walls six feet thick. 

Those who suppose Monaco, or Andorra, or San Marino to be the 
smallest state in Europe must awake from their delusion. Sark has, by 
the last census, only 546 inhabitants, and is practically an independent 
state, owing only a feudal allegiance to Great Britain by way of Guernsey. 
Traces of the Druids exist, showing their early occupation of the island. 
In the Dark Ages it was the haunt of pirates, who from this almost inac- 
cessible eyry swooped down on ships passing the Channel. After they 
were exterminated, the French held Sark some time; but in the reign of 
Elizabeth it was taken by a very ingenious stratagem, of which only a 
brief recital can be given here. It seems a galley anchored off the island 



THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 77 

under pretense of being- a trader whose captain had died on the voyage. 
To consign a Christian man to the deep seemed a gratuitous sin, when 
Sark was so near at hand. Would the garrison allow his comrades to 
land the coffin and bury him in consecrated ground ? They would go 
ashore unarmed, and would allow themselves to be searched on landing:. 
This request was granted after due deliberation. The coffin was landed, 
and in solemn procession borne into the church. The door was then 
closed suddenly, and before the French could discover the object of this 
manoeuvre, the coffin, which was filled with arms, was broken open, and, 
arming themselves, the sailors rushed out and cut down the French right 
and left. In their panic some threw themselves from the cliffs, the rest 
surrendered. Since that time Sark has continued under the English flag. 

The Seigneur is feudal lord of the island, and shares the government 
with the other landholders, about forty in all. The worthy pastor, Mr. 
Catiehraeyer, a Swiss, has not been off the island for thirty-seven years. 

I can heartily and truthfully recommend the invalid and pleasure- 
seeker to give these islands a trial — with a bit of advice on a point not 
always regarded by persons culpably foolhardy or totally ignorant of 
boat-sailing, especially in these very dangerous waters : never set out in 
a boat here, or undertake to go to Sark or any of the islands, if the boat- 
men are reluctant to try it, or if you are advised by the natives to wait 
for a change of weather. 



,:.^ 




seigneur's hocse, sark. 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE MAGDALEN ISLANDS. 

MY attention was first called to the Magdalen Islands, in the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence, when I sailed in the Anna Maria fishing schooner. 
The skipper had often cruised in their neighborhood, and strongly advised 
me to visit them. Accordingly, I packed my kit and started in search of 
this terra incognita, in September — two months too late to see them if 
one consults his personal comfort, although really the best season if the 
tourist wishes to gain a clear notion of the savage character of the islands, 
and the waters which encircle them, and of the isolated life which the 
islanders lead. I went by way of Prince Edward Island, and found it 
no laughing-matter either to reach or leave these dunes of sand, even so 
early in the autumn, although they are bnt fifty-six miles due north from 
Eastern Point, Prince Edward Island (the distance from Souris, where the 
boat touches, to Havre Aubert, Amherst Island, being but eighty miles). 
Twice a month, until navigation closes, the steamer Albert runs from 
Pictou to the Magdalens, touching at Souris to take the mails when the 
weather allows her to enter the exposed port of Souris. But her move- 
ments are very uncertain, and the sleepless vigilance which is said to be 
the price of liberty is trifling compared with the watchfulness required on 
the part of the voyager who has made up his mind to reach the Magdalen 
Islands, and to reach them by the steamer Albert from Souris. No one 
could tell me the exact day or hour she was to be looked for, and a gale 
of wind about the time we might begin to expect her seemed to render 
it very uncertain whether she would touch at Souris at all ; but the post- 
master promised to give me prompt information when they came for the 
mail-bag. At nine in the evening, the wind having moderated, the whistle 
of the steamer was heard shrieking in the port. I ran to the hotel for my 
carpet-bag, but the postmaster had, of course,* forgotten to send me word 
according to promise, and every one at the hotel had gone to an itinerant 
show. With the bag on my shoulder, I ran a mile, and was able to clam- 
ber over the side of the steamer just as she was shoving off from the 



THE MAGDALEN ISLANDS. 79 

breakwater. A slight detention of five minutes, owing to a loose screw- 
in the engine, was all that enabled me to catch the boat. The Albert 
proved to be, without exception, the most clumsy and dangerous craft I 
ever stepped foot on, considering the perilous nature of the waters she nav- 
igates. The weather was tine and the wind fair, so we managed to aver- 
age nearly six knots, which took us in sight of the islands at sunrise. It 
was a clear, cheerful day after the storm. Nearly a hundred sail of our 
Gloucester fishermen dotted the horizon, and the crests of Amherst, Al- 
right in the extreme distance, and Entry directly ahead and near at hand, 
were exceedingly beautiful, warmed by the morning sun, which mellowed 
their various vivid tints into pearly grays. 

It may be said here that the name now given to the whole group 
originally belonged to the long narrow island which comprises the more 



-j 






*&i 




SAND DUNES AND WRECKS BETWEEN AMHERST AND GRINDSTONE ISLANDS. 

or less lofty divisions termed respectively Amherst, Grindstone, Alright, 
Wolf, Coffin, and Grosse Isle — islands which are all more or less connected 
by a double row of sand dunes enclosing lake-like lagoons, but divided 
in some places by sea-openings fordable at low water, and at Basque Har- 
bor, Havre aux Maisons, and Grand Entry Harbor deep enough to admit 
of the entrance of small vessels. Around the Magdalen Islands, never 
more than a few miles distant, are Headman's Island, the Bird Rocks, Biron 
Island, Shag Hock, and Entry Island, which are now all comprised under 
the same name. The Magdalen Islands par excellence trend thirty-eight 
miles in a north-easterly direction, from Amherst to Coffin Island. A long 
spit, called Sandy Hook, and partially under water, extends due east from 
Amherst toward Entry, from which it is separated by a narrow and dan- 



80 



TIIL ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



gerous channel. Pleasant Bay is the bight formed by Sandy Hook round 
by Basque Harbor to Grindstone Island, and is a commodious and safe 
roadstead in all but easterly winds, when vessels must cut and run for 
the other side of the island, or make a dash for Havre Aubert if taken 
too suddenly. In the terrific gale of August, 1873, our fishing fleet was 

lying for refuge in Pleas- 
ant Bay, when the wind 
shifted so rapidly and 
violently into the east- 
ward that thirty - three 
schooners were driven 
on shore in an hour, 
piled together on the top 
of each other. The skel- 
etons of some of these 
hapless vessels still bleach 
on the beach at Amherst. 
Rounding the grand, 
gayly colored sea-cliffs of 
Entry Island, the Albert 
steamed up to an anchor- 
age at Amherst, at the 
bottom of Pleasant Bay, 
and a boat carried the 
mails and one solitary 
passenger ashore through the surf. The curious little town of Amherst 
lies there, composed of perhaps fifty houses straggling up the flanks of the 
Demoiselle, a conical hill, which on the sea side falls vertically nearly two 
hundred and eighty feet. The business portion of the metropolis of the 
Magdalens clusters farther down, where store-houses and fish stages for 
the drying of cod are huddled together on a sandbar scarce a hundred 
paces across, which connects Mount Gridley with the Demoiselle Hill. 
On the north side of this bar is Pleasant Bay ; on the south side is Havre 
Aubert, twisted by our fishermen into Harbor le Bear. It is a small but 
perfectly safe port, the best in the Magdalens, it is said ; but the entrance 
channel is very narrow and shifting, and accessible only to vessels draw- 
ing not over twelve feet of water. On the flats in the centre of the har- 
bor lies an old hulk rotting in the storms which howl around that devoted 
coast so much of the year— a characteristic object, looking as if planted 
there purposely to indicate the character of those desolate isles. 




THE MAGDALEN ISLANDS. 81 

The passenger aforesaid found better lodging than he had reason to 
expect, at Mrs. Sheas little boarding-house. The variety in the larder 
was limited ; but the eggs were fresh, the milk rich, and the tea good, and 
the total cost of board and lodging not over seventy-live cents per diem. 
Amherst town may he said to be the seat of the Government. Mr. Fox, 
the revenue collector and superintendent of wrecks, resides there, and also 
Mr. Painchaud, the United States consular agent, who is very polite to our 
countrymen, and Mr. Foutana, the most important individual in the isl- 
ands, the agent of Admiral Coffin, the proprietor, who holds them subject 
to the jurisdiction of the Dominion. In reward for his public services, 
Captain Isaac Coffin, uncle of the present owner, received a grant of these 
islands from the British crown in 1798. They were first discovered by 
Jacques Cartier, and were colonized by French, chiefly Acadians, who 
sought refuge here when expelled from Acadie. They have received 
accessions from Canada, St. Pierre, Jersey, and England, and now number 
about live thousand, nearly all of French descent, and speaking and re- 
taining the language, customs, and religion of the parent country. They 
occupy the land generally by leasehold, under various conditions, and the 
rents are devoted by the proprietor to the laying-out of roads and other 
public improvements. But great dissatisfaction has grown out of the 
existing tenure of lands. It is alleged that the prosperity of the islands 
is hindered by the present arrangement, and strong efforts are now made 
to bring about the transfer of the islands to the Dominion. The admiral 
asks eighteen thousand pounds, which would not seem excessive, consid- 
ering that the area of the Magdalens is seventv-eight thousand acres, of 
which fully one-third is arable, and another third not wholly useless, while 
the fisheries add greatly to their value. 




AMHERST, LOOKING TOWARD DEMOISELLE HILL. 

6 



82 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



The lions of Havre Aubert were soon visited, including the English 
chapel on Mount Gridley, the new Koraan Catholic church on the Demoi- 




LANDING ON ENTRY ISLAND. 



selle Hill, and the jail and post-office, which are within the same enclosure, 
and under the charge of one superintendent, whose official duties are not 
exhausting. There is a mail but twice a month, and for rive months there 
is no mail at all, for the shore ice forms around the islands while the 
Strait of Northumberland is closed, and navigation ceases in the Gulf 
from December to April inclusive. 

It was important to visit Entry Island, and to seize the first good 
weather, as the passage of nine miles in a small boat may prove very diffi- 
cult in case of a sudden change of weather, always liable to happen after 
the 1st of September; and, in fact, at all seasons the sea rises in the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence with great rapidity, always rugged and tumultuous, with 
vast combers that break, owing to the tides and currents and the shoalness 
of the water and the undertow, all aiding to render navigation there ex- 
cessively hazardous, combined with the frequent fogs. 

Some men had come from Entry Island to attend the sale of wrecked 
goods at Havre Aubert, and I was able to return with them. We sailed 
in the broad light of the full moon, skirting Sandy Hook. A number 
of the islanders with their dogs came down to help us beach the boat 
and land the cargo on a long low sand spit on the northern side of En- 
try ; and the scene by moonlight was very picturesque, and seemed more 
as if on the shore of some tropical isle surrounded by summer seas 



THE MAGDALEN ISLANDS. 



83 



and balmy breezes than in the almost hyperborean regions of the St. 
Lawrence. 

Mr. James Cassidy, the keeper of the light-house, cordially invited me 
to lodge with him. A long mile over a rolling moorland, with shadowy 
hills on our left and the moonlit sea and red star of the light-house be- 
fore us, led through the frosty air to a warm fire in Mrs. Cassidy's com- 
fortable kitchen, where a cup of tea and some of the capital island mutton 
added very materially to our well-being. "'Look well to the commissa- 
riat," is ever the motto of your experienced traveller. 

Entry Island is pentagonal in form, only two miles long in its greatest 
length, and for its size offers a greater variety of scenery and attractions 
probably than any other island of the Atlantic. The western half of the 
island forms a gentle slope, broken into pleasant intervales, divided into 
charming meadows and pasture-lands, overgrown with potatoes or waving 
grain and fragrant grasses, and ending abruptly in cliffs fifty to a hun- 
dred feet high. Bits of dwarf woodland scattered here and there give 
a very picturesque effect to this pastoral landscape, which is also height- 
ened by the numbers of cattle, horses, and sheep everywhere visible, and 
the farm-houses of the ten families who here pass away their uneventful 
but not unhappy lives. They are all of Irish and English descent, and 
such a thing as want is probably unknown on Entry Island. It contains 




LD MAN AND OLD WOMAN. 



about thirty-two hundred acres, an average of over three hundred acres to 
a family. They export some stock and provisions, including considerable 



84 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

butter. Mrs. Dixon told me she owned fifty-five cows; the milk is ex- 
cellent, and to be had for the asking. The people appear to be thrifty, 
and yet it does not seem that they make the most of their opportunities. 
But who would blame them for this ? They have enough, and are con- 
tent. The women do not have to buy four hats a year, or study the fash- 
ions from Paris ; the men do not need to pore over the daily financial 
reports, or discuss the public-school question in a place where all are Prot- 
estants, where there are no schools, and only a minister twice or thrice a 
year to marry and christen. At the same time, I saw books and papers 
in every house I visited, including the old family Bible, and the people 
are as intelligent as they are hospitable. They use, in common with all 
the Magdalen Islanders, a peculiar square cast-iron stove set on high legs 
between two rooms, fitting in an opening in the partition Avail, thus heat- 
ing both apartments equally, and economizing both labor and fuel. Here 
during the long winter days, when shut out entirely from the rest of the 
world, they sit and spin yarns and woollen at the same time. The old- 
fashioned spinning-wheel is used in all the islands, and most of the people 
are clad in homespun. 

The eastern half of Entry is of quite another formation — bold and 
mountainous. Although the highest elevations are but lofty hills, yet they 
are really so high, considering the small area from which they rise, as to 
give in miniature the effect of a very rugged and mountainous land. The 
highest summit is six hundred and eighty feet above the sea by the latest 
survey, and it looks higher, it is so steep. The prospect from the top on 
that calm September day was one of rare beauty. The tints of sea and 
sky were soft, yet rich as those of southern latitudes. At our feet were 
spread the rich uplands and lowlands of Entry Island encircled by a line 
of silver foam. Beyond lay the group of islets clustering around Pleas- 
ant Bay, the red and gray precipices of Amherst, Alright, and Grindstone, 
bathed in hues so tender and beautiful I could hardly believe it was not 
some fair scene in the ^Egean pictured before me like an exquisite dream. 
In the extreme distance, fifty miles away to the southward, could be dis- 
cerned the faint outlines of Cape North and St. Paul's Island. As this 
hill, the highest elevation in the Magdalens, and commanding a view of 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence nearly one hundred miles in diameter, has re- 
mained without a name up to this time, the writer has ventured to name 
it St. Lawrence Hill. To the eastward of St. Lawrence Hill is Pig Hill, 
about fifty feet lower, but equally well defined. From these two peaks 
radiate a number of miniature gorges and dells thickly overgrown with 
savage woodlands of dwarf spruce, intermingled with birch, pine, and sas- 



THE MAGDALEN ISLANDS. 



S5 



Bafras, and terminating on all sides but the land side in astonishing cliffs, 
generally vertical, and in some cases actually overhanging the sea. These 
magnificent precipices are three hundred and fifty feet high at the east 
end, gradually rising to over four hundred feet on the southern side. The 
loftiest of these cliffs, for lack of any other name, is here called the Watcli 
Tower. Scarped and sculptured in a thousand fantastic shapes, and brill- 
iantly hued with the lively and variegated tints of the new red sand- 
stone, intermingled with gray gypsum and warm ochres, the cliffs of Entry 
Island scarcely yield in beauty and grandeur to the famous rocks of the 
Channel Islands, which, indeed, never reach an altitude of four hundred 
feet. Devil's Island is a perpendicular isolated mass connected with the 
main island by a zigzag curtain some thirty yards across, over three hnn- 




DRAGGING THE HULL OF A SCHOONER TO THE BEACH. 



dred feet high, and tapering up to an absolute edge scarce an inch thick. 
The sheep wiggle across this edge, which may be likened to the bridge of 
Al-Sirat, to browse on the acre of grass on the summit, where they keep 
company with a colony of freebooting foxes, which, gradually driven from 
one post to another, have taken a last refuge in this almost inaccessible 
stronghold of despair, and raid on the hen-roosts o' stormy nights. Near 
the Devil's Island is a pool which has been sounded farther down than 
the sea-level without finding bottom. 

I returned from Entry to Havre Aubert when a gale premonitory of 
the equinoctial was setting in, and was obliged to wait for clearing weath- 
er before starting for Grindstone Island. At length the elements seemed 
propitious, and we set out. The equipage, driven by Jean ISedeau, who 
can be recommended as a competent guide across the fords and quick- 



SG 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 




THROUGH THE SUEF. 



sands of the Magdalens, consisted of a cart hung on what were intended 
for springs, but they did not fulfil the intent of the maker. The jolting 
I received that day was fitted to search out every weak spot in one's anat- 
omy, and would sorely have tested the quality of false teeth. One could 
readily realize in Jean Nedeau's cart what may be the sensation of having 

the spine piercing upward into the 
skull. The sturdy roan pony that 
dragged us along at a three-mile-an- 
hour pace was of a decidedly domes- 
tic turn, and was strongly averse to 
leaving home. 

Our road led around the south- 
ern side of Amherst Island, which is 
eleven miles long, east and west, very 
hilly in the interior, being five hun- 
dred and fifty feet high, and general- 
ly cultivated. Near the fishing ham- 
let called the Basin we saw a very 
beautiful view. In the middle dis- 
tance rose the Demoiselle Hill like an acropolis ; in the background lay 
the purple heights of Entry Island like the main-land ; and in the fore- 
ground the blue waters of the Basin, girt with green meadows, where the 
peasants were harvesting the hay. No scene on this side of the Atlantic 
lias ever reminded me so vividly of historic bits in Asia Minor. Passing 
the hamlets of Pont-du-Moulin and Anse an Cabane, the road skirted the 
perpendicular red sea-cliffs on the left, while the wind sung a wild mu- 
sic in the spruce forests on our right. Here we saw a schooner on the 
stocks on a cliff, from which it would be slid on to the ice in the winter. 
Many small vessels are built on these islands, and it is not uncommon to 
construct them in the midst of the forest, over half a mile from the sea- 
side. In the winter, when the men cannot farm or fish, the ship-builder 
buys a few gallons of gin, and then invites his neighbors to the launch. 
The cradle on which the hull is laid is placed on runners, and drawn over 
the snow by many willing hands tugging at the cables. When they reach 
the cliff's edge, the vessel is lowered to the ice, forty or fifty feet below, 
on sloping ways, by the aid of crabs and a few oxen. When the ice 
breaks up, she becomes a thing of life, and goes forth to battle with the 
storms. 

At ten o'clock we came down to the lagoon called Basque Harbor, and 
began the toilsome journey along the dunes which protect it on the north- 



TIIK MAGDALEN ISLANDS. 



87 



western side. After proceeding a couple of miles, shielded from the sea 
by a range of low sand hills, we came to a break where the tide rnshed 
through like a mill-race : here we waited for the tide an hour, with ample 
time to study one of the wildest and most desolate scenes on the face of 
the earth. Sharp-speared salt grass scantily covered the tops of the sand 
hummocks, and relieved the uniform white, which only seemed more repel- 
ling when the surf lashed it with the foam of a storm that was gathering 
in the south-east, threatening and terrible in its gloom. Wrecks, or bits 
of wreck, were everywhere visible, partly covered by the shifting sands. 
Seaward, Deadman's Island was distinctly seen— a large rock resembling 
a corpse laid out. When the tide had fallen somewhat, we ventured to 
cross, feeling our way along a shoal near the centre of the lagoon. The 
water was up to the hubs of the wheels, and any deflection from the land- 
marks which guided us might have proved hazardous. After wading two- 
thirds of a mile, we once more stood on dry but not on firm land, for that 
epithet will hardly apply to bars more or less affected by every storm, and 
in places completely covered by the sea in a gale of wind. After this, 
we proceeded along the open beach, with the surf breaking among the 
spokes of the wheels. Curlew, plover, and wild-geese seemed to abound. 
In one spot two wrecks lay close together ; one of them had been there 




PORT AND VILLAGE OF ETANG DU NORD, GRINDSTONE ISLAND. 

ten years, and was still in tolerably good condition. She sailed out of 
Miramichi, a noble vessel of twelve hundred tons, just off the stocks. It 
was her first voyage. She had proceeded less than two hundred miles 
when she brought up on the Magdalen Islands. The owner got his in- 
surance, but the circumstances were against him. The far-sighted and 



8S THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

resolute audacity that will build a vessel to cast it away is almost sublime, 
while one hardly knows what to think of the sailor who will deliberately 
destroy a ship on her first voyage. 

Fording one or two more small inlets, we at length reached the end 
of the dune, twelve miles long, and entered the curious fishing-village of 
Etang du Nord, on Grindstone Island. In summer many of the people 
leave their houses inland and come down to this place. The men go a-fish- 
ing when the weather is at all practicable, while the women and children 
dry the fish and have a warm meal ready when the men return. A large 
fleet of strong fishing-boats of large size crowds the little port, just outside 
of which lies the curious rock called Gull Island. The shore of the ha- 
ven is lined with rude houses on stages in the water for the storing of 
the fresh fish, and the huts of the fishermen are ranged behind these. A 
quaint place is Etang du Nord, with its French people and manners ; and 
as I took a capital fast-day dinner in the snug house of M. Bourque, I 
could almost imagine myself back in the fishing-towns of Brittany. From 
here in the dusk we jolted through the woods, down hilly paths, to the 
house of M. Nelson Arseneau, at Havre aux Maisons, where I was hospi- 
tably entertained for several days : " Tons etes chez vous, monsieur," as 
mine host said to me, w T ith unaffected cordialit}'. 

Part of the little settlement of Havre aux Maisons, or House Harbor, 
is situated on Alright Island, which is reached by a ferry. Both islands 
have some remarkable headlands over three hundred feet high, notably 
Cap an Meule, Cape Grindstone, and Cape Alright; while each contains 
much fine farming land, with comfortable farms and pretty valleys, af- 
fording pasture to numerous flocks and herds. Abundance of grain is 
raised on these islands, but the general complaint is that there are no mills 
to grind it. Brooks there are which, by the aid of a dam, could furnish 
the power ; but I could not but think it very strange that, with such a 
capital situation and such abundance of wind, they do not use windmills, 
which are quite inexpensive. Cranberries grow on the islands, and the 
cultivation of that beautiful berry might easily become profitable. 

Havre aux Maisons. is a port of much importance as the seat of the 
seal fisheries, in addition to what is done there in the disposal of shore 
mackerel and ship-building. In the last century the walrus frequented 
the Magdalens in vast numbers, but they were at last frightened away by 
the prodigious slaughter. But the seal has always been common around 
there, and sometimes the catch is important. In the winter of 1875 over 
20,000 were taken, valued at $60,000 to the hunters, and yielding sev- 
eral thousand barrels of oil in addition to the skins. The oil is tried out 



THE MAGDALEN ISLANDS. 



89 



in vats. The blubber is thrown in at the top, which is left open ; when 
the spring sun arrives, the warmth melts the blubber, and the oil runs into 
the tubs below. The seals are caught on the floating ice, which sometimes 
extends many miles, but is liable to be blown away from the shore ice 
with a change of wind. Immense is the excitement throughout the whole 
settlement when news runs from one end to the other like wildfire that 
the seals have arrived. Every soul turns out, including the women, who 
stand on the beach with refreshments. Every party of hunters carries 
a small skiff, with which to return in case the ice moves off. Dragging 
the dead seals over the ice is a very exhausting labor; some now use 
horses and sledges for this purpose; but. at best it is a fearfully labori- 




CAP AU MELLE AND WRECK, GRINDSTONE ISLAND. 



ons and dangerous work, and many have lost their lives, carried away on 
the ice. 

It may not be generally known that our fishermen have for years 
frequented the Magdalen Islands for mackerel. It is not uncommon to 
see a fleet of two hundred schooners in those waters, taking home annually 
30,000 barrels of mackerel, worth over $350,000 at a low estimate. But 
the fishermen of those islands also pursue the shore fisheries with profit 
in boats. Nine thousand barrels of mackerel and ten thousand quintals 
of cod, worth in the aggregate $100,000, are set down to their credit, ex- 
clusive of what were caught by the Yankee fishermen, during the not very 



90 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



profitable season of 1S75. The herring fisheries are also of great value 
and importance at the Magdalen Islands. 

North-east from Grindstone Island stretches the broad and navigable 
lagoon formed by Wolf and Alright islands on either side, with their long 




sand dimes that unite them with Grosse Isle and Coffin Island. Grand 
Entry Harbor is a fine port of refuge between the two latter islands, which 
are the most common resort of the seals. Detached from these to the 
north are the Bird Rocks, and Biron Island, which is inhabited by a few 
families who cultivate its rich soil and raise stock ; but it is inaccessible, 
except when the weather is serene and with the wind off shore. Owing 
to the lateness of the season warning me to seize the first opportunity to 
leave, and the fierceness of the equinoctial gales, which lashed the Gulf 
surges into rage unwonted even in that turbulent sea, I was unable to 
visit the remaining islands. Passage was kindly offered me in the small 
schooner Sea Foam to Souris; but, on account of the heavy surf on the 
bar, we could not avail ourselves of the favorable wind after the gale, but 
were forced to wait a day. The ship-channel of Havre aux Maisons is 
very tortuous, in some places scarcely a ship's width, and lies so near the 
end of the spit that it can be touched by an oar in passing, while the cur- 
,rent of the incoming or outgoing tide rushes through with such violence 
that in a moderate breeze it is extremely difficult for a vessel to get by 
the spit without being headed off by the tide and slewed on a bank. 
Three times we got aground, and each time waited for the tide to lift 
us off. The same thing happened to the schooners in company with us. 
Finally, by the aid of a kedge, at slack tide, we were able to slip through 
the channel and put out into the open water of Pleasant Bay. But our 



THE MAGDALEN ISLANDS. 



91 



fair breeze had failed us, and the weather looked dubious and threatening, 
with light and baffling winds all night, which took us to the southward 
of Entry Island, when the wind settled in the south-west, with lightning, 
a heavy sea, and a very wicked-looking sky in the offing. A storm was 
brewing, and after a hasty consultation the helm was put up, and we bore 
away again for Pleasant Bay, where we dropped the mud-hook under the 
lee of the Demoiselle Hill, and were soon joined by a fleet of schooners. 
It blew fresh all day, shifting into the west, with a fine clear sky. In the 
afternoon we got up the anchor and moved farther up the bay, opposite 
Basque Harbor, to make a lee in case the wind should shift to the north- 
east in the night. There w r e lay until the following afternoon. The 
time was pleasantly whiled away exchanging visits with the neighboring 
schooners. Some very sensible, good fellows, with now and then a comical 
genius, were discovered in the diminutive cabins of these little craft, and 
the conversation, the merriment, and the yarns never flagged. On board 
our schooner we numbered six, consisting of the owners, the passenger, 
the skipper, the officers and crew, 
combined in the burly person of one 
man named Jim, and Joe, the cook, 
who professed to be from Glouces- 
ter, and was one of the most singu- 
lar characters ever seen on board a 
schooner. Cleanliness in his person 
or apparel was not one of his prom- 
inent traits. I know he has wash- 
ed his hands at least once in his 
life, because I heard the owner of 
the schooner send him on deck to 
do so just as he was about to knead 
some dough. As a cook, he was 
voted to be the greatest failure of 
the season, although he limited him- 
self to cooking only salt-horse, cod- 
fish, and potatoes with their jackets 
on. But the imperturbability of his disposition, combined with an impu- 
dence that almost exceeds belief, afforded us a compensating fund of en- 
tertainment, aided by the undying feud that existed between this hopeful 
disciple of Soyer and the skipper. 

" Blast your eyes !" roared the skipper, at dinner, " why don't you put 
the beef to soak before you boil it, you young pirate V 




THE SERENE JOSEPH. 



92 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

" It was soaked," said the serene Joseph. 

"And who was it but myself who put it in to soak at the last min- 
ute ?" replied the skipper. 

" Well, if you put it in to soak, what was the need of my doing it, 
eh ?" answered the respectful youth. 

"D n your impudence!" yelled the skipper, now fairly shaking 

with rage, and hurling a hatchet at the brazen-faced youth, who dodged 
it, and it struck the side of a bunk, just over his head. 

The whole morning Joe lay in a sunny spot on deck, out of the wind, 
in a brown-study. In the evening he handed around a greasy note-book, 
in which he had put down the result of his meditations in the form of 
a satirical poem on the captain, which was not altogether destitute of 
literary merit. 

It was very interesting, while we lay there, to watch the gannets div- 
ing for mackerel. Rising to a great height, they suddenly turned head 
downward, and, folding their wings close to the body, dropped into the 
water with the speed and violence of a shot, splashing the spray well into 
the air. When a flock of them were diving in this way over a school of 
fish, the effect was that of balls falling into the sea during a naval battle. 

On the following day by noon the wind got into the north-west, and 
it was decided to make another attempt to get across. We ran through 
the channel between Entry and Amherst, passing near to the Tigress 
steamer, which was wrecked on the former island in the late gale two 
days previously. The sunset that evening was one of the most superb 
it has been my fortune to see. The waves were of the most exquisite 
emerald hue, tossing up their spray like diamonds, while sixty-five of our 
schooners fishing close together under the lee of the purple hills of Am- 
herst Island, their main-sails touched with a rosy flame, and flocks of sea- 
birds darting hither and thither like bearers of light, or shooting-stars, 
their white wings illumined by the glory of the setting sun, combined to 
compose a marine view of unsurpassed magnificence. But after the sun 
went down, the weather looked less satisfactory ; however, it was decided 
to keep on. 

All night the wind was fresh but steady : all hands took turns at steer- 
ing and watching, and a sharp lookout was kept for East Point Light, on 
Prince Edward Island. This was made more difficult because a number 
of fishermen were tacking about or lying at an anchor, and their lights 
sometimes looked surprisingly like the gleam of a light on shore. After 
taking another look, the skipper went below again to catcli forty winks. 
Jim was at the wheel, and the writer, leaning against the foremast, and 



THE MAGDALEN ISLANDS. 93 

dodging the spray which shot over the bow, was on the lookout. But 
Jim also wanted to go below, ostensibly to get his sou'-wester ; and I 
went to the wheel. However, when he found himself in the warm, snug 
cuddy, he stretched himself along-side of the other four, and there they 
all lay on the floor, snoring as if we were a thousand miles from land. It 
was, however, not a bad night to have the deck to one's self, to hold the 
old schooner heading sou'-west and by south by the feeble glim in the 
binnacle, to keep a sharp lookout for the light under the leech of the 
main-sail, an eye to windward for squalls, and also find an odd second now 
and then for reflections suggested by the scene. It was a murky, rest- 
less night about two in the morning; the wind growing fresher, and com- 
ing in flaws moaning through the rigging, and driving dark clouds across 
the stars that twinkled here and there. Everything betokened a change 
of weather and a storm before long. The schooner, close hauled on the 
starboard tack, held bravely on her course, careening over gracefully as 
a stiff puff would strike her; then a turn of the wheel shivered the head- 
sails, and she was all right again. But at last I became convinced that a 
lighl on the lee bow could be no other than the one we were looking for, 
and I called up the skipper. Immediately on seeing it, he ordered the 
helm to be put up, and, slackening the main-sheet, we bore away to give 
the reef off the point a wide berth. In the August gale of 1S73, two of 
our schooners running before it, and with no other possible course that 
they could take and live, ran over the reef, and, owing to the depth of 
water then on it, might have escaped if they had not lost headway when 
their foresails jibed. An enormous breaker overtook and swooped over 
them at that critical instant. In a twinkling they were seen to capsize 
and go down, and not a vestige of them was ever seen again. Beating 
under the land against a strong breeze, accompanied by a fleet of schoon- 
ers running for a lee, we reached Souris at noon, just escaping a hurri- 
cane, which came on soon after and destroyed many vessels. 



94 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



CHAPTER V. 

MADEIRA. 

" "1 TADE1RA is an island lying off the coast of Africa, in the latitude 
-LT-L of Charleston, S. C, a resort for invalids. It is said to be exceed- 
ingly rich in natural beauty, and its wine is famous." 

That was all I knew about the island — quite as much, if not more 
than is known probably to most Americans ; but a trip made the previous 
summer to the Azores had whetted my appetite, and happening, about the 
time I was thinking of another cruise, to come across Captain Hard}', of 
the bark Ethan Allen, his glowing description of Madeira easily induced 
me to take passage with him, engaging the same state-room as on a former 
voyage. We had been twenty days out of Boston, running, generally, 
with a fair wind and less incident than usual, when " Land ho !" was the 
cry, and there, indeed, was the loom of land faintly discernible under a 
mass of cumulus cloud on the weather bow. For several hours it was 
doubtful whether what we saw was Madeira or its neighbor, Porto Santo; 
but, after a while, three isolated hummocks, pale-blue, under the lee bow, 
gradually assuming the peculiar outline of Porto Santo, indicated that 
Madeira was the land on our right, enveloped, as usual, in a curtain of 
vapor, and sixty miles distant. Porto Santo, twenty-two miles north-east 
of its neighbor, is small and barren, chiefly valuable for its limestone 
quarry, a geological phenomenon in the group. Until recently it was also 
a penal settlement to which convicts from Funchal were transported. 

The lightness of the breeze made our approach very slow, and it was 
only on the following morning that we drew near Madeira, and, very fort- 
unately, obtained an uninterrupted view of its magnificent outline, falling 
at either end abruptly to the sea, with lofty precipices and vast detached 
rocks of ragged and fantastic shapes and rich volcanic tints, along the 
whole coast-line ; while from the sea the land arose rapidly to the centre, 
where a cluster of peaks, closely grouped, deeply grooved and turreted, 
suggesting the bastions and pinnacles of a gigantic fortress, were cut clear- 
ly against the sky with the sharpness of sculpture. Passing San Lorenzo 



MADEIRA. 



95 



Point with a leading wind, we were immediately headed off by one of 
the numerous air currents which prevail on the southern side and neu- 
tralize the north-east trades, and fetched a tack across to the Desertas, 
three rocky islets belonging to the Madeira group. Very narrow, like 
a winding wall, they rise to the height of two thousand feet, and are 
next to inaccessible; while the violent squalls, which spring unawares 
from the cliffs, oblige the mariner to exercise unusual vigilance in their 
vicinity. 

Off the end of Chao, the northernmost, is a needle-rock, one hundred 



THE MADEIRA 
ISLANDS 



PORTO SANTO 



Ferro 



$» T 




tf^A 



I>^ 



e 






• J'"int San Lorenzo 



C* 



V 



'achico 



BP 



"*m 



DESERTA GRANDE 




Longitude West from tfreenwi.-h 16 30 



FiA t s<-. x. r. 



and sixty feet high, resembling a ship by the wind, as seen from the stern ; 
it is naturally called Sail Rock. A handful of fishermen share the Deser- 
tas with the cats, which have colonized and overrun them, and gather or- 
chilla and catch shearwaters by swinging over, the precipices. The birds 
are pickled, while the plumage is reserved for the beautiful feather-work 
of Madeira. When a supply of these is collected, an immense beacon-fire 
is kindled on the highest peak to summon boats from Funchal, thirty miles 



96 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 




FONCHAL HARBOR AND BRAZEN HEAD. 



distant. It is more than surmised that smuggling is also successfully 
carried on at the Desertas. 

The port of Fnnchal is only a slight curve between two headlands, 
with a sea exposure reaching to the south pole. Yet ships lie here all 
the year round. During the winter months vessels sometimes have to slip 
and run for an offing ; but the rest of the year the hazard is slight. A 
brig took out and repaired her main-mast while we were there as fearless- 
ly as if moored in a dock in a snug harbor. There is no landing-place 
except the beach, and boats of the most diminutive size venture out into 
the bay. Nothing so much impressed me with a sense of the mildness 
of the climate of Madeira as the security of this exposed roadstead. The 
boats are pointed at both ends, the keel-piece being carried several feet 
above the gnmvale. The stern-post is rounded at the heel, and a rope is 
passed through it ; a triple keel keeps the boat in an upright position on 



MADEIRA. 



97 



shore. When the beach is reached the boat is turned stern foremost, and 
men bared to the hips rush into the surf, and by the aid of the rope lift 
the boat up the steeply shelving shore. Ships are loaded and discharged 
entirely by large lighters, which are drawn on the beach by immense cap- 
stans, called crabs. An army of yelling, bare-legged boatmen is required 
to land or launch a loaded lighter. The beach of Funehal — crowded with 
rows of picturesquely shaped, gavly painted boats ; enlivened by the roar 
of the surf, and the constant landing of boats, and the Babel-like vocif- 
erations of boatmen and the drivers of ox-teams ; and flanked at one end 
by the governor's residence and a noble avenue of plane-trees, and at 
the other by a shaded Praea and an old red fort peaked with pepper- 
box turrets, the warm cliffs of Brazen Head rising behind it, and the soft 
violet outlines of the Desertas in the offing — presents one of the most in- 
teresting scenes on the island. Loo Iioek and the castle (which seems an 
integral part of it), dovetailing with the jagged pinnacles of the rock, form 
one of the most effective features of this scene, standing isolated and 
picturesque against the sky. 

The port of Funehal is often enlivened by steamers and ships touch- 
ing there from the coast of Africa. Their decks are crowded with crates 
and cages full of tropical fruits, and parrots and monkeys, the screeching 
and chattering of the latter being distinctly heard at some distance. This 
gives rise to many amusing incidents. Boys go off from the beach to 




LOO ROCK. 



9S THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

these steamers in tiny boats, and, clamoring loudly for pennies, dive to a 
great depth in the clear turquoise-colored water and fetch up coins. Now 
and then a shark's fin stealthily and ominously appears on the surface ; 
but accidents very rarely happen. 

Soon after I arrived the first time at Madeira, a Greek polacre brig 
came in from Sierra Leone, bound for Marseilles with a cargo of peanuts. 
She had been becalmed in the doldrums, and had been ninety-five days 
making some fifteen hundred miles. No sooner had she anchored than 
a negro sailor escaped from her and came on board our vessel. As he 
seemed determined to stay, Captain Hardy finally concluded to send him 
back to the brig, and, as I spoke Greek, asked me to go with the boat 
and explain the matter to the captain of the brig. 

I found the vessel apparently in the last degree of neglect, the coun- 
terpart of scores of similar craft I had seen in the Levant. Neither paint 
nor tar seemed to have touched the hull or rigging since she had been 
built. Everything was slack and in unmentionable confusion. The pea- 
nuts fairly bubbled on deck over the open hatches ; and monkeys and 
parrots snapped or winked at one from their cages or hiding-places under 
piles of old spars. A curious scene was the deck of that brig, rendered 
more singular by the handsome and tidy appearance of the captain, who 
stood by the companion-way and received me with the courtesy of a 
prince. He spoke French and Greek alternately, and with almost equal 
facility, and ordered the cabin-boy to bring up some Madeira wine, which, 
I regret to say, was of a poor quality. I then gave my message regard- 
ing the black sailor, who was now sitting on the rail dangling his feet 
over the water. 

The Greek listened with simulated nonchalance ; but when I had 
done, his fury exploded. Seizing a caliper's mallet, and hurling terrific 
imprecations, he flew at the negro with a ferocit}^ that led me to expect 
to see his brains dashed out on the instant. Raising the mallet, the 
Greek brought it down with great violence to within an inch of the 
negro's skull, and let it stop there. He then flung down the mallet, and 
came back as serene as if nothing had happened. But the negro, who 
had neither flinched nor winked, still remained in his place. After talk- 
ing with me a few minutes, the Greek captain was seized by another par- 
oxysm of frantic rage, and, snatching up the mallet again, rushed at the 
negro with even more violence than before ; but again the mallet stopped 
within an inch of the victim's head. Here was a blending of frenzy and 
self-control that was most extraordinary and unaccountable. Coming 
aft again, with a sardonic smile on his classic but rather piratical feat- 



MADEIRA. 



99 



ures, the Greek called for another glass of wine, and chatted in the mosl 
unconcerned manner, until a third lit of fury came upon him. This time 
he Mas undoubtedly in earnest; for lie did not take up the mallet, but 
making a dash at the negro, seized him with a death-like grip, and, in 
spite of his efforts at resistance, hurled him over the ship's side into the 
boat, where he struck on the thwarts, severely hurting himself, and nearly 
breaking his back. Calling away the boat's crew, I now returned aboard 
the bark. The poor negro deserted again the next day. 

Fimehal, seen from the sea, lies on a slope of extraordinary abrupt- 
ness, rent into three divisions by two gorges whose sides are ragged and 
nearly vertical. At the head of these ravines, immediately behind the 
city, peaks 4000 to 5000 feet high appear through rifts in the canopy of 




THE SLEDGE-HACK. 



clouds. A gray old castle, perched on a spur projecting from the moun- 
tains, whose teeth have been drawn — for its quaint outlandish brass pieces 
have flashed the grim menace of war for the last time — assists the eve 
to realize the suddenness of these precipitous ranges, and greatly adds to 
the effective prospect of the town. On landing, the stranger very soon 
learns the actual steepness of the place, and finds that your true Ma- 
deirian walks on three legs, or, in other words, assists nature with a staff, 
which, by often saving one from a severe fall, becomes literally the staff 
of life. The streets are paved with round pebbles, whose natural slipperi- 
ness is increased by friction, and also by the grease-bags of the sledges, 
insomuch that they are often worn flat, smooth as glass, and scarcely less 
treacherous. I found myself sometimes clinging to the walls on a steep 
incline with the tenacious grasp of ivy. The sledges alluded to are the 



100 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

nearest approach to a wheeled vehicle used on the island. They are 
drawn by oxen guided by leathern thongs passed through the tips of the 
horns. The drays are a mere slab twelve to eighteen inches wide, 
strengthened by a rim on the upper edge, and are of the same form, 
whether used by farmers or draymen. The hacks resemble our old-fash- 
ioned covered sleighs, except that the runners are of wood alone, and a 
cross-bar rests on the floor inside for the support of the feet when climb- 
ing or descending the steep declivities. The driver carries a grease-bag, 
which he lays at intervals in front of the runners. One of the most 
characteristic cries of Funchal is the yelling of the ox-drivers, " Ca, para 
mi, boi ! ca, ca, ca, ca ! o-o-o-ah !" (Come here to me, O oxen ! here to 
me ! whoa !) 

The hammock, carried on men's shoulders, is another conveyance pe- 
culiar to Funchal. While this is of especial advantage to the invalid, 
men who can reel off their ten miles before dinner without inconven- 
ience do not disdain to avail themselves of the luxuriant motion it af- 
fords. Strange to say, the apparently severe labor of hammock-bearer is 
preferred by the natives to any other form of open-air work. Horses 
imported from abroad, and generally trustworthy, are also used to some 
extent, shod expressly for the roads of Madeira with spiked shoes, which, 
in travelling over some parts of the island, have to be renewed as often 
as once in every three days. But the character of the roads, even in 
Funchal, is so trying to the nerves that many prefer the other modes of 
conveyance. 

But the coasting-sledge of Funchal must claim pre-eminence over all 
known forms of locomotion except sailing. I know of no other place 
in the world where business men slide down hill to their counting-rooms. 
In summer many gentlemen reside in villas, which are a continuation 
of Funchal, reaching as high up as the Church of Nostra Senhora do 
Monte, 2000 feet above the sea. I rode up one morning to breakfast at 
the villa of the Austrian consul, Signor Bianchi, situated on a level with 
the Mount Church. The ride was up a very precipitous incline; but the 
horses were on their mettle, and went up the unbroken ascent at full trot, 
the muleteers running close behind : they rested but once, and neither 
horses nor men showed shortness of wind. Behind us, at the end of 
steep streets, stretched the ocean, whose dim horizon -line grew rapidly 
more distant and faint as we rose. On either hand the road was shut in 
by high walls, overhung with a profusion of purple and scarlet flowers, 
which loaded the moist morning air with perfume. The terraces above 
were darkened by the lace- work of wavering light and shade cast by 



MADEIRA. 



101 



trellises supporting vines weighted with clusters of Muscatel grapes, " wan- 
ton to be plucked. - " Having partaken the genial hospitality of our host 
and hostess, we walked across the head of a ravine to a sledge "stand" 
by the Mount Church, and seated ourselves in a vehicle of basket-work. 
fixed on wooden runners, with a cushioned seat for three, and a brace for 
the feet. The attendants, seizing a leathern guiding thong, leaped on the 
rear end of the runners with one foot, gave the sledge a start, and we 
were off. With the foot that was free the men controlled their flying 
sledge as a boy guides a sled, only with more skill. We dashed down 
the narrow way at a speed almost frightful, but gloriously exciting, going 
around abrupt turns with a slide to leeward which only the astonishing 
dexterity of the guides prevented from becoming a hazardous capsize. 




THE MOUNTAIN SLED. 



Soon the increasing number of people in the street obliged us to slacken 
our pace ; but toward the end we overtook another sledge, and, ordering 
our engineer to put on steam, away we went again at prodigious rate, 
gradually overhauling the chase, until we suddenly turned into a dark- 
lane. The sled stopped, and, presto ! the excitement was over ; but not 
the memory thereof. We made something over two miles in eight min- 
utes and a half. The distance has been done in five minutes, when, ear- 
lier in the day, there was a clear road. Another time I made the descent 
at ten o'clock at night, when all was darkness ahead, intensified, if pos- 
sible, by the lantern we carried at our feet. This sliding into mystery, 
swiftly slipping through impalpable gloom, down apparently fathomless 
abysses, is wonderfully stimulating to the imagination. 

Funchal improves on acquaintance. As one grows familiar with its 



102 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

narrow and somewhat intricate streets, he rapidly discovers objects of in- 
terest which relieve the sameness of the heavy stone buildings. I never 
was in a town of 20,000 inhabitants so well built, so cleanly and prosper- 
ous, and so well situated, in which architecture as an aesthetic art had 
been so entirely ignored as in Funchal. The Se, or cathedral, is a build- 
ing of some size, and its spire is surmounted by a gilt globe symbolizing 
the former world-wide dominion of Portugal. It is said to have been 
designed by Mattheus Fernandez, one of the great architects who con- 
structed the famous church and cloisters of Batalha. The Se is pleasing 
in its general plan, while the poverty of the founders probably prevented 
much elaboration. But the ceiling of the nave and transept, beautifully 
carved out of juniper, and tinted and gilded, deserves careful attention. 
The Church of Santa Clara is an interesting old building. It contains 
the grave of Zarco, the Portuguese discoverer of Madeira. 

On the way to the Mount Church is an old dwelling, whose two front 
windows, mullioned in stone, are suggestive of Moorish art. But if art 
has done little for Funchal, nature has done much to atone for this. Many 
of the solid but unpretentious houses conceal rare attractions within their 
gates, revealed like magic to him who steps within, unprepared for the 
sight, and finds terraced gardens overlooking, the ocean and the mountains, 
and stocked with the profuse vegetation of two zones. The palm and 
the pine, the cypress and the magnolia, the pomegranate and the banana, 
the walnut and the guava, the apple and the coffee-tree, the rose apple 
and the chestnut, intertwine their various shades of perennial verdure in 
a fraternal embrace that seems to unite different climes as in Eden ; while 
the oleander, the fuchsia, the geranium, the hortensia, the bougainvillia, 
the heliotrope, the acacia, the jessamine, and numerous other flowers of 
brilliant hues and spic} 7 odors, growing wild in vast quantities, clamber 
over trellis and wall, and blend their fragrance from one season to anoth- 
er; for on this enchanted isle neither the frosts of winter nip their buds, 
nor the rage of the doi^-star fades their scarlet and blue. 

The market-place of Funchal is also an object of attraction, although 
the many varieties of fruits and vegetables displayed in its stalls do not 
generally reach the excellence of their native climes, excepting the grape, 
the fig, and the strawberry ; the latter lasts all summer, and is superior 
in flavor to our best. The peach is not comparable to a good Jersey 
peach; apples and pears are hard and tasteless; but the flavorless char- 
acter of the fruits of Madeira must be owing chiefly to the little attention 
paid to improving them, for agriculture is conducted in a primitive man- 
ner, while the mildness of the temperature and fertility of the arable soil 



MADEIRA. 



103 



would seem to offer the conditions essential to successful husbandry ; but 
it may be that this very mildness is the cause of this defect in the vege- 
table productions of Madeira. A sharper air in winter, a fiercer heat in 
summer, may be necessary to complete excellence. The oak, for example, 
flourishes here, and its foliage is perennial; but the wood is soft and com- 
paratively valueless. 

Venomous insects and serpents, which are one of the scourges of the 
tropics, are happily almost unknown in Madeira, with the exception of 







CIU'RCH OF NOSTRA SENHOItA DO MONTE. 



a small species of tarantula, which is not common. Its bite, although 
very painful, is not often fatal. I once had an adventure with one which 
afforded me a little exciting sport. I was occupying at the time a small 
building containing two apartments, standing alone in the vineyard be- 
hind Ilolway's Hotel — a very cosy little box, where I passed many a 
pleasant evening. From the balcony I could overlook the lights of 



104 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

Funclial or of the ships at anchor, and listen to the music of the bells 
stealing up from the town, or the regular beat of the surf on the shore. 
Often the upward rush of scores of rockets, blending their red, blue, and 
green stars with the stars which spangle the serene skies, added to the 
interest of the prospect from my window. Nowhere is there a greater 
delight taken in tire works than in Madeira. Every saint's day is cele- 
brated by the explosion of hundreds and thousands of rockets, and the 
birthdays of the wealthier citizens afford fresh opportunities for the ex- 
plosion of these aerial baubles. Every church in the island has also its 
novana, or nine days' fete, and during the whole nine days rockets are sent 
up at intervals by the score. 

Well, on the evening in question I was quietly reading, absorbed in 
Byron's tragedy of " Werner," when I became conscious, without know- 
ing exactly why, that there was something in the middle of the floor 
which had not been there a moment before. On looking around, I saw 
a tarantula deliberately marching across the room and coming toward 
me. He evidently -wanted my chair, and I concluded to let him have 
it. As more light on the subject was desirable, I then went into my 
bedroom and brought out another candle. When I returned, he was sit- 
ting exactly in the centre of the chair I had just vacated. The cushion 
was scarlet and lie was black, a sort of velvety black, like a large button 
of that color. But I could not stop to admire the harmony of colors, for 
he was closely watching my motions ; and as the tarantula is aggressive, 
and can jump several feet, he is not to be trifled with. I went after a 
heavy walking-club in the corner of the room, and meantime he hopped 
on the flap of the table-cloth which was close to the chair. This was a 
false move on his part. Gently raising the end of the cloth below him 
with the stick, I gradually coaxed him on to the top of the table, which 
was exactly where I wanted him. Quietly I removed everything off 
the table, in order to have a clear field of operations. He watched me 
intently with his bright, intensely black bead -like eyes, quickly turning 
around to face me every time I moved. It was a fair game on each side, 
but lie did not improve his opportunities. When all was readj^, I took 
up a volume of Rnskin's "Modern Painters" — a work which has proved 
itself of great weight, and has demolished more than one reputation — and, 
taking deliberate aim, brought it down with great force on the devoted 
tarantula. When I took, up the book the creature was not there. It was 
now of the last importance to find out if he had jumped on me. The 
dark color of my clothes, and the fact that I could not very well see my 
own back, made it difficult to settle this satisfactorily for some moments. 



MADEIRA. 105 

Further search, however, showed the tarantula under the sofa in the 
corner of the room. I hurled the club at him, end on, with a fury which 
indented the wall, but he briskly avoided the danger; and another hunt 
revealed him under a chair, this time thoroughly frightened, it would seem, 
for he allowed me to lift the chair and carry it away. Still confident in 
the destructive powers of Ruskin, I brought the volume down once more 
on the tarantula, and this time his back was broken. I still have faith in 
Ruskin, at least under certain circumstances. Leaving the tarantula on 
the field where he had fallen, I then went to bed, thankful to feel that 
I was rid of a very unpleasant bedfellow. I have known several cases 
where a tarantula has crept between the sheets unbidden. 

The next morning I arose and went to look at him ; he was still there. 
I returned to bed and took another nap and a cup of chocolate. But 
when I looked for the tarantula a second time I found that the cockroaches 
had completely devoured him, excepting the two hard, black, glistening 
eyes, which lay on the floor like bits of polished jet. 

But Funchal is not the whole of Madeira : it is, in fact, but the vesti- 
bule to scenes of greater interest and beauty, and it was therefore with 
much satisfaction that I completed a bargain for a boat- cruise along 
part of the southern coast. I had a crew of four stout fellows, and an 
able boat provided with sail and awning. We started about sunrise, and 
skirted cliffs standing many hundred feet perpendicularly above the sea, 
richly colored with volcanic tints, sometimes showing spots of pure ver- 
milion inlaid with burnt sienna and Indian red. Reeds and grass grew 
on the ledges, partially draping the nakedness of the precipices as a cinct- 
ure of leaves dangles around the tattooed waist of a Feejee warrior. Little 
boys and girls were barely discernible here and there, skipping like goats 
from ledge to ledge at dizzy heights, gathering grass on these unpromis- 
ing spots. Passing under the remarkable promontory called Brazen Head, 
we came to Atalaya Rock, which resembles a vast oak riven by a thunder- 
bolt. We continually met boats bound to Funchal with vegetables and 
firewood, until, toward noon, we reached Santa Cruz, where our boat was 
hauled on the beach, and I proceeded on a quiet ramble, finishing up witli 
dinner at the charming hotel. 

Santa Cruz is at the opening of one of the profound torrent gorges 
which are a distinguishing feature in every Madeira landscape, and affords 
some fine bits of scenery. A sail of an hour from here took us to Ma- 
chico, where the boat was beached, and after some search I obtained a 
room in a private house for the night. 

Anna Dorset was sought in marriage, in the days of Edward III., by 



106 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

Robert Machin, a gentleman, and they both lived in Devon by the sea. 
But he was of lower station than the lady — at one time, and, unfortunately, 
still too often, the accursed cause of much heartache and the separation 
of souls whom God, if not the priest, has joined. Her friends made 
haste to patch up a marriage between Anna and a nobleman, whose birth, 
if not his wits, was equal to hers. But Machin — and who that has loved 
can blame him ? — was not of the stuff that can tamely submit to such 
petty tyranny. He persuaded one of his friends to enter the service of 
the lady's husband, and in that capacity become her attendant. By this 
means it was planned that she should elope to France. A galley was 
procured, and one night the lady fled from her lord's castle, and embarked 
with her lover at Bristol, forsaking her native land, never to return. The 
night was wild and dark with threatening tempests, but they had no al- 
ternative but to put to sea. Scarcely, however, had they cleared the coast, 
when a north-easter struck the vessel and forced the in to bear away before 
it. Thirteen days they scudded, and at last made land — a strange, cloud- 
hidden, unknown, and uninhabited land, offering only tremendous preci- 
pices and surf -beaten rocks on its northern coast ; but, on rounding a 
savage cape, they came to the southern side, and there, at the bottom of 
a snug little bay, stretched a beach, on which they landed, and found them- 
selves in a grassy vale, well watered, musical with the melody of birds 
and streams, and shaded by majestic trees, seemingly sheltered from the 
boisterous world by lofty mountains. Here Anna and her lover rested 
three days — perhaps, in each other's society, forgetting the land they had 
left behind and the stormy scenes which had intervened, and hoping that 
in this paradise they had at last gained an asylum where they might pass 
their remaining days in peace. But another storm drove the galley to 
sea, and, overcome by this new calamity, added to her already terrible 
suffering of body and soul, the lady expired. Five days passed, and Rob- 
ert Machin, too faithful in his love, also succumbed to the anguish of these 
accumulated afflictions, and was buried at her side. Their surviving com- 
rades erected a cross over the grave of the lovers, and then embarked in 
a rudely constructed craft and were blown to the coast of Africa, whither 
the galley had already been driven, and her crew reduced to slavery by 
the Moors. A companion in their captivity was the Spaniard Juan de 
Morales, who was eventually ransomed and sailed for Spain ; but he was 
captured on the way by the Portuguese navigator Joao Gonsalez Zarco, 
who learned from him the story of Machin and Madeira. Associating 
Teixera, an experienced pilot, with himself, and also taking Morales, Zarco 
sailed in quest of this island. The remains of Machin and Anna were 



MADEIRA. 



107 



found as described, and a small chapel was erected over them, which ex- 
ists to this day. 

Such is the one legend of Madeira, a tragedy replete with pathos, the 
substantial truth of which has been confirmed by recent investigations. 
Machieo and its valley, named after its ill-fated discoverer, seemed to me 
well fitted to be the scene of a story so tender and affecting. The town, 
once a rival to Fnnchal, is now only a humble farming and fish i no- vil- 
lage. A few barefooted, poverty-stricken peasants cultivate the terraced 
sides of the valley; a few fishing-boats lie on the beach; an old fort, half - 
hidden by overhanging plane-trees, points the cobwebbed muzzles of dis- 
mounted guns at fleets which pass at a distance and aim at it nothing 
fiercer than the lens of the perspective glass. The only garrison of this 




BAMMOCK-R1D1NG IN HADEIK.V. 



grizzly veteran of sieges and bombardments that have never been fought 
were a whiskered Portuguese and a portly dame, apparently the guardians, 
possibly the parents, of a maiden whom I saw embroidering in one of the 
embrasures, singing to herself and tapping an old cannon with her foot 
—one of the very few really beautiful girls (let it be breathed in a whis- 
per) whom I was privileged to see on the island. Several quintas are 
scattered about the valley, and on a spur projecting from the mountain- 
sides, a mile or two from the shore, are the gray ruins of a nunnery, 
which the abolition of convents throughout the Portuguese dominions has 
left roofless and desolate. It is superbly situated, and commands at sunset 
a prospect of surpassing beauty and grandeur. 

The long beat of the surf on the shore lulled me to early dreams 
after a prime cup of tea and a dish of broiled mullets just out of the sea. 



108 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

The shouting of the fishermen starting on their daily trip to the fishing- 
ground aroused me at three next morning; and, after a breakfast the coun- 
terpart of the meal of the previous evening, we shoved off and sailed away 
with the morning- star for our beacon, the dawning splendor of pearl 
and gold broadening in the east. We reached Fora Island about eight 
o'clock. This is a bold cliff at the extreme end of San Lorenzo Cape, 
over three hundred feet high, and surmounted by a light-house erected 
but six years since, which is the only guide for the mariner to be found 
either in the Madeiras or the Azores — a circumstance very disgraceful to 
Portugal. The keeper of the light-house and his assistant welcomed us 
with the cordiality of men whose social advantages are Crusoenian. As 
a dingy, greasy copy of Camoens's "Lusiad" was the only sign of print 
to be seen on the premises, the mental resources of these stylites appeared 
not less meagre, although good so far as they went. The Connecticut 
clock in the entrance-hall also indicated that these recluses took " no note 
of time," for it was one hour and three-quarters slow. Justice requires 
me to admit that the lantern itself is mounted in a building admirably 
adapted to the purpose, and is one of the finest Fresnel lights on any 
coast, revolving twice a minute, and visible thirty miles at sea : it is also 
kept in excellent order. 

Setting my easel on the terrace at the summit of the Rock, I devoted 
several hours to putting on canvas a sketch of the Point and the moun- 
tain ranges in the background. We then lunched, and launched away 
for Funchal before the fresh north-east trade -wind which carried us 
rapidly as far as Brazen Head, when a counter-current of air and a calm 
forced us to lower our sail and try a " white-ash breeze." We reached 
Funchal at sundown, after an excursion full of novel pleasure and inci- 
dent, of which the foregoing is but a mere outline. 

On the following Monday I made an early start on a wiry gray horse, 
and attended by a burrequiero, or muleteer, for the ascent of Pico Ruivo, 
the highest point in Madeira. As the road to the summit from the south- 
ern side, by way of the Torrinhas Pass, was at the time impracticable, 
which is saj'ing much in Madeira, it w r as necessary to cross over to Sant' 
Anna on the northern side, and ascend from there — a very pleasing alter- 
native, as it proved, for it carried me through some of the finest scen- 
ery of the island. Dashing directly upward, we soon gained the Mount 
Church, and passed into the clouds. Nor was it long before we reached a 
cooler atmosphere and a resting-house at an elevation of 4500 feet. Not 
very far beyond we came up with the lofty summit of Poizo on our right, 
and the gorge of the Ribeiro Frio, or Cold River, a winding canon, narrow 



MADEIRA. 



109 




and thousands of feet in depth, clothed with verdure, beautiful with ex- 
quisite gradations of light and shade, and festooned with lazy mist trailing 
from crag to crag. Immediately opposite to where we began the descent 
rose the central range of the island, the sharply pinnacled group of Kuivo, 
Arriero, Sidrao, Torres, and Canario ; while to the left the ravine of the 
Ribeira Metade, next to 
the Curral the grandest 
gorge of Madeira, lost 
itself in the heart of the 
mountains. The rapidi- 
ty of the descent almost 
took away my breath ; 
but I soon became sea- 
soned to anything no 
steeper than this, for the 
whole road to Sant' Anna 
was very much like go- 
ing over the teeth of a 
saw lengthwise. Mount- 
ing by zigzag roads up 
the sides of a perpendic- 
ular cliff, we would reach 
the ridge only to descend 
at once on the other side 
by a road perhaps more 
precipitous, where a mis- 
step of the horse would 
plunge the rider into an 
abyss. 

Often we passed the 
peasants at work in the ■ — - 
fields, which in Madeira 
are mere narrow shelves on the mountain-sides, which are terraced as 
high up as 3000 feet, involving an amount of labor and climbing almost 
beyond belief. So scant are the level spaces that even the threshing- 
floors are often mere terraced platforms overhanging the precipices. The 
lungs of the peasantry must, I am sure, be abnormally developed, for men 
and women alike travel all day up and down these steep ascents, bearing 
heavy loads on the head, at much more than the average pace of a good 
walker on a level road in other countries, and with no other aid than a 




VILLAGE OF CAMA DO LOBOS. 



110 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 




A THRESHING-FLOOR. 



stout staff; and merrily they do it, too, without signs of fatigue, and sing- 
ing as they go. They are a musical race, challenging each other to im- 
provise as they meet on 



the road, or chanting 
while the oxen are tread- 
ing the wheat; but it is 
a very lugubrious mu- 
sic, resembling snatches 
of a funeral dirge very 
dolefully rendered. It 
is pleasing to the stran- 
ger chiefly because it in- 
dicates a cheerful, con- 
tented spirit, the practi- 
cal philosophy of a sim- 
ple-hearted people who live out the celebrated maxim about the folty 
of exchanging ignorance for wisdom. To practise philosophy is the lot 
of those who are too ignorant to understand its meaning ; to analyze and 
preach, but not to practise it, is the privilege of the few whom the world 
has seen fit to regard as sages. 

The dwellings of the peasantry on the north side of Madeira are gen- 
erally thatched cabins rudely constructed, having but one room, divided 
by partitions of matting. The people themselves are thrifty, but by no 
means comparable with the Azoreans in personal beauty. They have, 
especially in the western half of the island, a large infusion of African 
blood, for slavery once existed there. Their language is a patois of the 
Portuguese, subdivided into almost as many shades as there are valley 
parishes — a circumstance sufficiently strange, considering that Madeira 
has an area of only 240 square miles. They speak with a shrill rising 
inflection and a plaintive, pleading tone, which gives a ludicrously pa- 
thetic character to the merest gossip or idle banter. 

Cultivation is largely dependent on irrigation, for while Madeira is 
not destitute of streams running at all seasons, the water, at its sources, 
falls from great heights to the bottom of the ravines which radiate from 
the central mountain group, and, as the arable land is almost entirely 
along the sides of these ravines, the water would seem unavailable ; but 
the problem has been solved by the display of considerable daring and 
engineering skill. The streams are tapped far up near their sources, and 
diverted into levadas, or channels, averaging fifteen inches in width, mean- 
dering along the vertical sides of stupendous precipices, and by easy gra- 



MADEIRA. 



Ill 



dations coursing by all the gardens and terraces of the island. Sixteen 
hours in every forty days are allowed each landholder for the use of 
the current dashing past his grounds, and he must he ready to avail 
himself of it whenever notified that his turn has come ; so that it is a 
very common circumstance to see a man in his garden at midnight, grop- 
ing, glowworm - like, among the beds with hoe and lantern. One of 
these currents is drawn from the cataract of Rabagal, where one may see 
accomplished one of the most daring engineering feats of the age. The 
water-fall is on the north side, and has a sheer descent of 1000 feet at 
the head of a narrow ^oi'are ; 

for a large part of the year agNSadfe 

it is rather a meagre stream 
slipping down the side of the 
cliff. The curtain which here 
divides the northern and south- 
ern slopes is but 1400 feet 
thick ; and a native of the 
island, an officer of engineers, 
conceived the idea of catching (HU 
the water in its descent, and 
by a tunnel conducting it to 
the south side, where it was 
most needed. To accomplish 
the undertaking, it was neces- 
sary for the workmen to lower 
themselves from the edge of 
the precipice, and thus, sus- 
pended in the air by ropes 
400 feet from the abyss be- 
low, and constantly drenched 
by the cataract, these unre- 
corded heroes labored at their 
fearful task. When blasting, 
they would swing out and lay 
hold of a bush or a crag, and 
thus await the explosion. A 
number were killed before the 
work was completed. At last 
a trench was excavated in the hard rock of the cliff, by which means 
part of the water- fall was intercepted and conducted to the tunnel bored 




3g 



A GRIST-MILL. 



112 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

through the mountain, and thus reduced to service. It is the old story 
over again of Pegasus curbed and harnessed to the plough. 

The parish of Sant' Anna is a large, straggling village spreading over 
a plateau somewhat less broken than the ridges over which I had been 
riding. As I entered its limits, the road became wider and less precip- 
itous, often overarched with interweaving shade-trees, presenting many de- 
licious nooks, with here and there a picturesque grist-mill overgrown with 
ivy and moss enlivening the still air with its chattering. The thatched 
huts were also very pleasing, embowered in the foliage of chestnut and 
bay trees clasped by the creeping arms of grape-vines, and enclosed by 
hedges of fuchsia and geranium growing in rank profusion. About 
3 p.m., I alighted at the hospitable gate of Senhor Acciaoly, mine host 
of the Sant' Anna Hotel, as well as the respected mayor of the parish. 
Affable in his address, he has in his day entertained many strangers from 
abroad who have sought the island for health, science, or pleasure. On 
the pages of the hotel-book are the autographs of Commodore Hull, Sir 
Charles Lyell, and other celebrities. The hotel is on the brow of a preci- 
pice 1100 feet above the sea. From its windows may be seen Ruivo to 
the south, and in the foreground to the eastward the pointed peak of 
Courtado, which has a sheer descent of 2000 feet to the surf that dashes 
below. I found myself rapidly becoming accustomed to look at the most 
tremendous precipices with the familiarity, but, I trust, not the indiffer- 
ence, of those native to the soil. 

It rained hard during the night, and the next morning the mountains 
were concealed in compact masses of cloud, to the last degree unpromis- 
ing of clear weather on the heights. To undertake the ascent of Ruivo 
on that day seemed a hopeless task. But, about nine, the clouds began to 
roll up a little, and, contrary to the advice of all, most especially of my 
grumbling muleteer, who did not care to make the trip — and I did not 
blame him — I decided that, at any rate, no. harm could come from try- 
ing, while we might, by a bare possibility, succeed in obtaining the view 
desired. I had not come so far to give up without at least making an 
attempt to scale the mountain citadel of Madeira. A guide from Sant' 
Anna accompanied us. Part of the way we had a steep cattle-path, but 
the rain had made it very slippery, and the panting horse had to be urged 
hard up the rapid, crooked inclines, in order to hold his footing, and, after 
a while, not even a bridle-path was to be seen, but he had to pick his way 
carefully from crag to crag. The fog, in the mean time, was so thick 
that nothing was visible beyond the ground we trod on. It was often 
accompanied by heavy showers, and the guide strongly urged our return, 



MADEIRA. 113 

but, determined, at least, to stand on the summit of Ruivo, I kept on. 
An isolated row of basaltic columns, joined in a gigantic wall, served to 
shelter us from the driving rain as we rested at noon, and somewhat dis- 
consolately discussed our cold chicken and wine. Occasionally, tantaliz- 
ing glimpses of ragged cliffs and gorges appeared in the gray mist only 
to disappear in a twinkling. An hour later I was obliged to leave the 
horse with the burrequiero, and, with tiie guide, climb the remainder of 
the way on foot. Passing through a cleft in the ridge, we gradually as- 
cended the precipitous sides of Ruivo, threading a tortuous path among 
enormous heath-trees of a hoar antiquity, dating, perhaps, beyond the 
dawn of history. Weird beyond description did these antediluvians ap- 
pear in the ghostly folds of the dripping mist, their limbs and trunks vio- 
lently distorted and convoluted in multitudinous grotesque shapes, as if 
here the Dryads and Maenads had heard the cry, " Great Pan is dead !" 
and had been suddenly fixed while writhing in the despairing agonies 
of dissolution. 

At length the last rock was surmounted, and the guide impressively 
said — at least it sounded impressive to me — " Pico Ruivo !" We stood 
6200 feet above the ocean. But clouds were overhead and beneath us 
and around us. Nothing but opaque masses of cloud, frantically driven 
past us by an angry wind, frore as if directly from the frozen north. 
Closely wrapped in my overcoat, I waited anxiously for some break in 
the clouds that would at least partially repay me for the trouble of the 
ascent. Half an hour went by, and I was about to descend, when, far 
below, the clouds seemed to grow thin, and the shoulder of a peak was 
seen coyly appearing. After this, glimpses of the landscape became quite 
frequent; then, of a sudden, as if a curtain had been withdrawn at a sig- 
nal, the clouds parted above, revealing the clear sky intensely blue, and, 
at the same instant, Ruivo and its group of Titanic companions uncovered 
their heads and came forth in all their majesty, heightened, if possible, 
by the mantles of cloud which gathered, fold on fold, in the gorges, deep- 
ening by contrast the glory of the sunlight which illumined the thunder- 
scarred faces of the upper cliffs, then suddenly seized by the gusts that 
swept through the passes, surging upward in curling, roseate columns like 
the steam arising from a vast caldron in the bowels of the earth. Around 
Ruivo towered Sid rilo, Torres, Torrinhas, Arriero, Canario, and Pico Grande, 
at an elevation of from 5500 to over 6000 feet, all within a radius of three 
miles, and cloven to their bases by ravines of stupendous depth. Around 
the angle of the vertical wall of Torres, the gorge of the Grande Curral 
das Freiras was partially visible ; to the south-east rose the Lamoceiros 

8 



114 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

Pass and Penlia d'Aguia ; in the north, the Arco of Sao Jorge ; and around 
all, only five miles distant, north or south, rolled the ocean, appearing 
dark sapphire through rifts in the tumultuous array of clouds which seemed 
let loose in aerial battle over its apparently boundless surface; for the 
horizon -line often blended with the sky, and soared far up toward the 
zenith. Along the verge of ocean, clouds reposed in ranks, gleaming pure 
as beaten gold, and resembling icebergs at the pole. Never have I gazed 
upon a scene equalling in sublimity that awful and overpowering specta- 
cle from the summit of Ruivo — a scene to mould the character and stamp 
its memory on the soul forever. 

How long I should have remained riveted to that spot entranced I 
cannot tell, if the clouds had not closed over it as suddenly as they had 
opened, and in an instant all again became gray and dim, as if what I had 
just gazed upon were but the wild vision of a brain steeped in the subtle 
fumes of opium. 

On the following morning I was again in the saddle for Funchal, re- 
turning by way of the Lamoceiros Pass. From the smiling plateau of 
Sant' Anna we dived into a narrow but beautiful valley, where culture 
and nature held united swa} 7 , and then scaled the steep side of Courtado. 
At the summit, I checked the horse to gaze over the superb scenes we had 
just traversed ; then, turning his head, I passed, without warning, through 
a cut in the razor-like summit of the ridge, and came with startling sud- 
denness upon the edge of a precipice falling 2000 feet, with the ocean 
directly below, but so far down that the roar of the surf reached the up- 
per air like the echo of voices long missed but still ringing faintly in the 
memory. The effect was precisely as if one were to open a door to step 
from one room to another at the top of his house, and be arrested on the 
sill by finding himself stepping into space, and the half of his house pros- 
trate at his feet. Before us rose the rock of Penha d'Aguia, or Eagle's 
Eyry, a cube of volcanic stone high as Gibraltar, on all sides nearly 
perpendicular, and projecting into the sea, where three canons (the Ri- 
beira Secco, the Ribeira Metade, and the Ribeira Frio) converge and 
unite their torrent streams. On one side of the Penha is the village of 
Faial ; on the other, Porto do Cruz — each on a small bay, almost inac- 
cessible, however, as a harbor, owing to the vast rollers which tumble 
in at all seasons of the year. From Courtado Peak to Faial the zigzag 
road was paved with small triangular stones along the face of the cliff, 
but it was very narrow and frightfully steep ; in fact, the steepest road 
in the world attempted on horseback, and entirely unprotected by a para- 
pet. Gradually picking our way down to Faial and across the stony bed 



MADEIRA. 



115 



of the three torrents around the basis of the Penha d'Aguia, we came to 
the romantic village of Porto do Cruz, after climbing a bit of road so 
steep and broken, it was only by severe and constant application of the 
whip that, the horse was kept on his feet, while the rider leaned well for- 
ward to retain his seat, and momentarily expected a dangerous fall. 

From this village to the Lamoceiros Pass was a steady, rapid, zigzag 
ascent of 2300 feet, but the road was wider and in better order. A water- 
fall, flashing down the mountain-side near the road, added greatly to one 
of the most magnificent prospects in Madeira. After gaining the Pass, 
we turned to the south side of the island, across the head of the valley 
of Machico, descending into the green recesses of a glen upon whose lush 
grasses the Lotus-eaters might 
repose content, and dream years 
away, lulled by the carol of 
streams wandering under the 
rustling foliage of aspen, laurel, 
and chestnut trees. We lunch- 
ed by a brook-side, and, climb- 
ing again, reached the elevated 
table -land of the Santa Serra, 
overgrown with broom, and en- 
tirely different from the scenery 
we had been traversing. After 
a while we came again to deep 
ravines, and ascending and de- 
scending, and deviously wend- 
ing,* the usual mode of travel 
in Madeira, came to the village of Camacha, where the charming villas 
gaze on the ocean far below, through the branches of chestnut-groves. I 
afterward spent two months in Camacha, and can truthfully recommend 
it as one of the most delightful summer residences in the world, and the 
nearest approach to an ideal paradise I have ever seen. Farther on, 
Funchal, gleaming like pearl in the slant rays of the setting sun, burst on 
our view, thousands of feet below. At this point I found a sledge station, 
and dashed down to the city, over three miles, in fifteen minutes. 

Another excursion, offener made than any other, because more acces- 
sible, is the trip to the Grande Curral. The last time I visited it I was 
en route to San Vincente, and as parts of the road to be traversed are un- 




PEASANTS HIT AND PEASANTS 



* "Avavra Karav-a napavra rt oo^ta. — Iliad, xxiii. 



116 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

travelled by horses, I took a hammock. The hammock was stretched on 
a pole, and shaded at the head by a canopy. The ends of the pole rested 
obliquely on the shoulders of two stout bearers, who started off at a swing- 
ing pace between a walk and a trot, which was kept up most of the dis- 
tance to the Curral, not less than ten miles, with a rest once in three miles 
at a venda, when a pour boire was expected and sometimes obtained. The 
men showed little sign of fatigue, although, like all Madeira roads, this 
was always up and down steep grades. Soon after leaving the limits of 
Funchal we came in sight of the village of Cama do Lobos and Cabo Gi- 
ram, a vertical cliff 2185 feet high, bathing its feet in the sea waves. It is 
the loftiest sea cliff in the world. Leaving this on our left, we entered 
the Estreito district, which is virtually the wine-growing district of Madei- 
ra, the slopes being densely covered with vines trained on trellises which 
often overarch the road. The little wine raised on the north side and at 
Porto Santo is of inferior quality, and is changed into brandy, which is 
mixed with the best Madeira. The vine was first introduced into the isl- 
and from Cyprus in 1425, and the red volcanic soil gave it a flavor which 
brought it into rapid repute. The Shakspearian student will remember 
Poins's allusion to it when he says to Falstaff, "Jack, how agrees the devil 
and thee about thy soul, that thou soldest him on Good-Friday last for 
a cup of madeira!" Until 1852 this noble wine continued to sparkle on 
the board of those whose cellars contained the rarest wines. In that year 
the yield was about 20,000 pipes; then, without warning, a blight — a fun- 
gus on the plant and fruit, called the o'ideum Tuckeri — made its appear- 
ance, and in 1853 the yield fell to 100 pipes! This has continued until 
within twelve years. The suffering resulting from the sudden collapse of 
the wealth-bearing resources of the island was beyond computation. Af- 
ter a while the cultivation of the sugar-cane restored a portion of Madeira's 
lost prosperity. Still later, a way was found of counteracting the spread 
of the blight, and partially resuming the production of wine. This is 
done by blowing the powder of sulphur flowers over both vine and grapes, 
a very laborious process, as may be easily imagined. Madeira wine, jew 
excellence, is made from the mixture of grapes dark and white, and from 
a light claret color gradually pales into a topaz hue of surpassing richness. 
Four other sorts are also produced — Malmsey, Bual, Sercial, and Tinta, 
all excellent. The first is too well known to require further mention ; the 
last, from the Burgundy grape, is a mild, red wine. 

From the Estreito district our hammock-bearers gayly swung us from 
height to height, under the shade of ancient chestnut forests. At noon 
we reached the edge of the woodland, and a few rods of steep climbing 



MADEIRA. 



117 



brought us suddenly to the brink of a basin of appalling depth. We 
stood on the edge of the Grande Curral das Freiras, and gazed upon one 
of the most sublime landscapes on the face of the globe. The fonn of 
the valley at once suggests a crater, but geologists assure us that such is 
not its character. The bottom of the gorge is 2500 feet above the sea- 
level, while the average height of its vertical sides is over 2000 feet. At 
the north-eastern end are grouped Ruivo, Torres, Sidrao, Canario, and Tor- 




PENHA D'AUUIA. 



rinhas, rising nearly 4000 feet above the torrent which courses along the 
bottom of the canon and slips away to the sea through a cleft too narrow 
to permit of a road. The ragged ridges and needle-fike pinnacles towered 
rosy-red against a sky of an azure far deeper than is seen in our climate. 
In the centre of the Curral, on a small green plateau, stands the white 
Church of Nostra Senhora de Livramente, surrounded by the thatched 
roofs of a hamlet, appearing at that depth like mites. Of less extent 
than the Yosemite, the Curral scarcely yields to that in actual grandeur. 



118 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

There is the same abruptness of precipice, the same impressive sublimity 
in the grouping of peaks, to produce, within a narrow compass, an over- 
powering effect ; the massing of light and shade is perhaps superior, 
presenting contrasts of terrific strength as cliffs project into space ruddy 
as living coals in the blaze of sunset, while the ravines recede into un- 
fathomable depths of Tartarean mystery and gloom. The local coloring 
is also varied and rich, affording the artist not only chiaro-oscuro and 
form, but also color, the musical or emotional element in landscape. 

From this spot we proceeded somewhat over a mile farther, until we 
could look into the gorge of the Serra d'Agoa, which, in the form of a 
right angle, runs from the Curral to the sea, and is but little inferior to 
it in sublimity. Winding along a narrow dike, which separates the two 
gorges, we came to a place where the dividing rock was not over twen- 
ty feet wide. On either side was a chasm not less than 2000 feet deep. 
Among so many astonishing views it is difficult to select the finest; but 
after surveying about every striking prospect in Madeira, I am inclined 
to think, excepting the view from Ruivo, that this one is the most impres- 
sive ; and as few travellers ever go beyond the first halt on the edge of the 
Curral, I most heartily advise them to push on a little farther, to the dike, 
and to the rock called " Boccha dos Inamorados," in spite of the remon- 
strances of the hammock -bearers. Skirting the perpendicular, streamy 
sides of Pico Grande, we descended into the romantic recesses of the 
Serra d'Agoa, densely wooded with primeval forests of the grotesque 
and dusky til, which is found only on this island and the Canaries. The 
forms and grouping of the castellated peaks, as seen from the venda, 
where we halted for agoa diente, is extraordinarily beautiful. From here 
we again scaled the ridge which separates the northern and southern sides, 
and, almost falling down the steep slopes of the Pico das Freiras, plunged 
into the valley of San Vincente, the finest of the cultivated gorges of the 
island. It is of considerable length, and the sun had already robed the 
regular bastions, 3000 feet high, of the eastern side of the valley, in golden 
light, and shrouded the walls of the Paul de Serra, 5000 feet high, on 
the opposite side, in purple gloom, as we passed from stream to stream, 
and, amidst the mingled music of peasant -girls and cascades, arrived at 
the inn. The building stood on the edge of a natural terrace, in the cen- 
tre of a valley whose loveliness beggars all description. On three sides 
the closely grouped mountains enclosed this idyllic spot with a tremendous 
forest-clad wall crowned at one end by the pinnacle-like Pico das Freiras, 
soaring to a height of 6000 feet. Numerous streams tripped their musical 
journey down this magical valley, while on the fourth side the ocean was 



MADEIRA. 119 

seen close at hand, through a gate-way in the mountain barrier, tumbling 
for evermore on the beach with the ceaseless surf of the trade-winds, and 
chanting a thunderous monotone, sublime and seemingly as eternal as 
time. My room overlooked the mountains and the sea. The floor was 
covered with beans spread out to dry, but the sheets of the bed were clean 
and scented with rose leaves laid between them, reminding me of Izaak 
Walton's Bleak Hall, where the linen was scented with lavender. But 
the landlord was half fool, half knave, and, like some men of that descrip- 
tion in other countries who get office, was also corregidor. His wife en- 
deavored, with well-meant politeness, to make up for what was lacking in 
the character of landlord and provisions. The latter consisted chiefly of 
chickens dressed up in various fashions, all equally tasteless. Like most 
of the poultry served up to tourists in Madeira outside of Funehal, the 
chickens aforesaid had hardly learned to peep before they found them- 
selves in the soup-tureen. But the tea was good, as it generally is when 
prepared by the Portuguese. 

The next morning we were off for Seixal. Proceeding down the val- 
ley of San Viucente, w r e reached the shore through a narrow passage be- 
tween lava cliffs, and for a mile or two kept on a level with the sea; then 
the road assumed another character. The northern coast of Madeira is 
for the most part a perpendicular cliff, divided here and there by ravines, 
and occasionally presenting a narrow shelf at the base. Nothing like a 
sandy beach is anywhere to be seen. Until within ten years, Seixal could 
only be reached by perilous goat-paths over the mountains, or by boats in 
summer-time. But the road we passed over has been more recently hewn 
by pickaxe and gunpowder out of solid rock in the vertical face of the 
cliffs, at an average height of 150 feet above the sea, while the precipice 
towers many hundred feet above. The road we found wholly without a 
parapet, and rarely over live feet wide; in some places, between three and 
four feet only. Occasionally we came to a water-fall having a plunge of 
1000 feet or more, and the road was then tunnelled under the cascade. 
I confess to an "awesome feeling" when we came to an angle in the 
road so abrupt that the hammock-bearers stood on opposite sides, while 
the hammock actually, and without exaggeration, hung in mid-air over 
the surf which thundered far below\ After that I concluded to get out 
and walk. Several fatal accidents have occurred here. The road was 
interrupted by the Ribeira do Inferno, a highly romantic gorge, and then 
continued of the same character several miles farther to Seixal. After 
lunching on the porch of the village church, which commands a glori- 
ous prospect of land and sea, we returned to San Vincente for the night. 



120 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

and started next morning for Funchal by way of Ponta Delgada and 
Sant' Anna, along the sea. Much of the road on this day resembled the 
road to Seixal, never quite so narrow, however, and generally protected 
by a low parapet, so that it is passable by horses ; but it is much higher, 
and at Boa Ventura springs suddenly to the height of near 1000 feet, and 
one must have a cool head when he looks over upon the ocean below. 

Another most delightful trip is to Calheta, the Rabacal (already al- 
luded to), and Ponto Pargo, at the western end of the island. One can 
make the excursion entirely by land; but it is well, at least, to go one way 
by water, in order fully to realize the tremendous height of Cabo Giram, 
and to see some of the remarkable volcanic rocks of the southern coast. 
One should, however, be careful to choose the weather, and have reliable 
boatmen, as it is impossible to land anywhere if it should blow fresh from 
the southward. At Ribeira Brava I was obliged to lodge in a peasant's 
hut ; but the view of the sunset from that spot toward Ponte de Sol is 
well worth the sacrifice. On my return, with a rashness which cannot be 
recommended, I started from Calheta with the wind blowing from south- 
west, and a high surf rolling on the beach; but we hoped the wind would 
moderate toward mid-day. It did exactly the opposite. There was noth- 
ing to be done but to run before it under a rag of canvas, the whole rug- 
ged coast everywhere presenting an unbroken line of raging breakers. 
The wind followed us around into Funchal Bay, and it was with some 
difficulty we effected a landing. But this was in March. Later in the 
season there is less liability to southerly winds. 

Every day of my residence in Madeira increased my enthusiasm for 
the inexhaustible variety, beauty, and grandeur of its scenery and the 
deliciousness of its climate. Four times have I visited it, once remain- 
ing there six months, and rambling over it and painting its landscapes at 
leisure ; and the more I reflect upon its scenery, the more do I feel that 
neither language nor pencil can exaggerate the natural attractions of this, 
the finest of the Atlantic isles. In climate Madeira may well be reck- 
oned among the Isles of the Blest, for, in a word, 

"The climate's delicate; the air most sweet, 
Fertile the isle, * * * much surpassing 
The praise it bears." 



TENERIFFE. 



121 



CHAPTER VI. 

TENERIFFE. 

TO ascend this celebrated peak had long been my ambition, as well as, 
more recently, to discover if the climate and scenery of the Queen of 
the Canaries were equal, not to say superior, to those of Madeira. I was 
glad to find the two islands so different that comparison was unnecessary, 
while I was, on the whole, not disappointed by what I saw at Teneriffe. 
Although on a far grander scale, it resembles Pico Island in the Azores. 
J>nt the peak of the Western Islands, although but 7615 feet high, has not 
only been seen one hundred and ten miles at sea by observation, but is 
often visible for half or two-thirds that distance; while Teneriffe, 5000 feet 
more lofty, is rarely seen at a distance, especially from the north, owing to 




PLAZA DE LA t'o.NSTH ICION, SANTA CRUZ. 



peculiar atmospheric conditions, particularly after the trade-winds begin, in 
April. It was therefore almost useless for me to strain my eyes to discov- 
er it on the voyage, although the weather was fine, for the breezy ides of 
May were against me. But the light near Anaga Point was visible thirty 
miles ont, and the fearfully ragged and desolate volcanic peaks and cliffs 
of the south-eastern coast were in plain sight close on the starboard beam 
as we rounded Anaga in the pearly gray of dawn. Ere long Santa Cruz 



122 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



appeared on the shore directly ahead, with the mountains rising behind 
in ever-ascending scale, and at last the extreme summit of the great cone 



allegranza0 

Clara o- 
Graciosa^ 



Lajtzarote, 




Palma i 1,( S taC*ruz 




FlJERTEVENTURA 



Gran Canaria\ 



CANARY ISLANDS 



AFRICA/ 



F.'.i & Stt. K. T. 



17 Lon^'ituile West 16 from Greenwich 15 



called the Piton towered before us, clearly cut against the azure of the sky. 
As the sun arose, the yellow pumice-stone and snow of the little peak as- 
sumed a rich roseate hue. The whiteness of the peak gave to it and to 
the island its name. Thener ife (the white mountain) it was called by 
the aborigines of Las Palmas, for so it looked to them sixty-eight miles 
distant. The Piton is also called the Pico de Teyde^a corruption of 
Cheyde, the Guanche word for hell — a title whose appropriateness is at 
once apparent to one who ascends the peak. 

The harbor of Santa Cruz is only an open roadstead, whose sole pro- 
tection is the regular character of the winds and climate, and the nature 
of the anchorage, which is so steep that a vessel cannot drag ashore, al- 
though she may be driven out to sea occasionally. But even when it is 
calm, the water of the port is always more or less agitated by the heavy 
swell rolling in from the trade-winds blowing outside. The landing-place 
is within an admirably constructed mole. It was here that Lord Nelson 
made his attack on Santa Cruz, July 14th, 1794, losing an arm in the fight, 
but winning knighthood for his gallantry and skill. The traveller, on land- 
ing, is beset by two contrary emotions, caused by the exorbitant demands 
of the boatmen and the carters,' and the immense and rather unwonted 
relief at finding no custom-house — no officials in dirty livery to turn the 
contents of his trunk inside out ; that, in a word, although under the 
Spanish yellow-and-scarlet flag, Santa Cruz is a free port. 



TENERIFFE. 



123 



In 1852 this island, with those adjoining, obtained permission from 
the Home Government to abolish all duties on goods entering the Cana- 
ries, provided that they made up any deticit that might result to the rev- 
enues of the crown from the adoption of this measure. The commerce 
of the islands since then has been tolerably prosperous, and. the importers 
have thriven on free trade ; but lest the advocates of free trade should 
cite this as a proof of the truth of their theories, it is only fair to add that 
the deticit in the national revenues has never been made up, and already 
amounts to millions, the possible collection of which is held over the peo- 
ple as a rod of terror, while the taxes have been so increased in proportion 
by the Home Government as to cause much grumbling among the landed 
proprietors and peasantry. 

The English hotel, I fonnd, had been recently closed for lack of pat- 
ronage. It was therefore with dread that I turned to the Spanish fonda 
kept by Durvan, adjoining the captain-general's ; but I was agreeably 
disappointed to tind a comfortable and well-sustained hotel. Santa Cruz 
is not the only place of that name in the Spanish dominions. There are 
several in the Canaries alone, including two on the island of Teneriffe ; 




naga Ft 



TENERIFFE 



but this one is the most important town of the group, numbering some 
15,000 inhabitants. Las Palmas, in Gran Canaria, contains a larger pop- 



124 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



illation, but it is of less relative consequence. Santa Cruz de Teneriffe 
is regularly laid out on a gradual slope, flanked by very savage, volcanic 
precipices and ravines, which are not so near, however, as to justify Hum- 
boldt's statement that it lies un- 
der a perpendicular wall of rock, 
unless his words be accepted in 
a figurative sense. 

Lest the people should forget 
the name of their city, a massive 
marble cross stands at the head of 
the Plaza de la Constitucion, near 
the jetty. The houses are often 
of only one storv, and rarely more 
than two, though a partial third 
story is not uncommon in the form 
I of a tower surmounted by a ter- 
j! race. The roofs are flat, and offer 
a pleasant promenade in the cool 

I of the evening. The two-storied 

H . f 

H dwellings are in the form of a hol- 

|"' low square, in Eastern style. One 

would not suspect this from their 

appearance on the street. From 

the outer door, which is always 

open until late at night, one passes through a passage, corresponding in 

length with the width of the rooms, to the inner door, which gives into 

the patio, or court, open to the sky, and frequently planted with bananas, 

orange-trees, roses, and jessamines. Around the patio on the ground-floor 

are store-rooms and offices. The family occupy the next floor, the rooms 

opening upon verandas overlooking the court. A cluster of small bells is 

attached to the inner door. When a visitor arrives, he pushes it open ; 

the bells sound the alarm, and a shrill voice answers above, " Quien ?" 

(Who is it ?) Should there be no bells, the visitor claps his hands. 

As in Las Palmas, there are a number of the lower class who live in 

caves in the outskirts of the town. The Guanches, or aborigines, were 

troglodytes. At Gran Canaria remains of stone dwellings still exist ; but 

the Guanches of Teneriffe seem to have been uniformly troglodytes, and 

the custom of turning the numerous air-vents, or caves, of this volcanic 

soil into dwellings has not yet been quite abandoned. Some of them 

have been improved by face-walls and other " modern improvements," but 




SPANISH SENOKITA. 



TENERIFFE. 



12; 



their essential character as cave-dwellings is unchanged. The windows 
of all the houses in Teneriffe deserve especial mention. A massive frame 
like a box fits into the aperture, but, unlike an ordinary casement, projects 
some inches from the wall. The blinds are heavily panelled with square 
bevels, and in the lower half of each is a smaller blind swinging out from 
below. This is called the postigo, and plays a most important part in 
the uneventful lives of the inhabitants, especially the female portion of 
the community. Is any unwonted sound heard in the street, up go the 
postigos. Early in the day, women with frowzy tresses and children jusr. 
out of bed, scarcely awake and entirely unwashed, lean languidly on the 
sill and gaze at the passer-by behind the postigo. Later in the day the 
dark -eyed senorita, her toilet completed, shoots dangerous glances from 
behind this convenient ambush, and perhaps drops it suddenly just as one 
begins to realize the charms it coyly reveals. In the evening the lover 
converses with her, standing under the half -raised blind of the magic 
postigo, while she, seated on the window-seat, leans her round arm on 
the sill, and listens to the passionate words he utters in low tones, and 
perhaps with her fan coquets with another admirer across the street. 

The Plaza de Principe, in the centre of the town, is very pretty, en- 
closing a fountain, and embowered with plane and pepper trees. It is 
the great resort on fine evenings, and few others ever occur. A band of 
music plays very tolerably, although the romantic guitar tinkling in the 
side streets is more in consonance with the hour and the clime. One is 
surprised to see so many handsome 
ladies in so small a place. They in- 
variably wear that most graceful of 
all head - coverings, the mantilla, ei- 
ther black or white, and of lace or 
silk. The ladies of Teneriffe, having 
found a graceful costume for the 
head, are sensible enough to know 
when they are well off, and do not 
change it, Not until half-past eight 
does the band begin to pla} r . It con- 
tinues until eleven, when the " se- 
renos" take up the cry in turn. This 
is the humorous sobriquet applied to 
the night-watchmen or police, who every half-hour sing out, often very 
musically, "Ave Maria purisima /" then they give the hour, and end with 
" Sereno" (all serene). Hence the epithet; for so almost invariable is the 




THE POSTHJO. 



126 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



weather, it very rarely occurs that it is necessary for the watchmen to 
alter the cry ; and sometimes when it is actually storming they still, from 
habit, shout "Sereno!" 

But to linger long in Santa Cruz when the valley of Orotava is yet 
unseen and unexplored is unpardonable. An excellent carriage-road con- 
nects the two places, and the distance is about twenty-five miles. The 
island itself is sixty miles long, and Orotava is on the northern coast. I 
therefore started one fine morning for the valley Humboldt considered 
the most sublime and beautiful landscape he had ever seen. We began 
to ascend immediately toward the ridge at whose summit, 3000 feet above 

the sea, lies that quaint and 
sleepy old town, Laguna, of 
all drowsy places one of the 
most peaceful and somnolent. 
It was once the capital of 
the island. Wealth was in 
its borders. Marquises and 
counts dwelt there in consid- 
erable splendor. The ade- 
la?itado, or first viceroy, also 
reigned there, and his palace, 
built over four hundred years 
ago, still remains. But now 
the grass grows rank in the 
streets of Laguna; the house- 
leek is abundant, springing 
from the mossy tiles of the 
dilapidated roofs and the 
crevices of the forsaken ja- 
lousies. Stately gate- ways are 
walled up, and " the spider hath woven her web in the palaces of Afra- 
siab." Yet, owing to her exceptional!}' cool, moist climate, Laguna con- 
tinues a resort in summer for those who desire to exchange the parched 
air of Santa Cruz for a more bracing atmosphere. Even in summer mists 
and rain are not uncommon there, w T ith abundant breezes; while the charm- 
ing meadow-lands and intervales surrounded by sharp peaks commanding 
wonderful prospects over land and sea, in the midst of which the little 
city is situated, afford a limitless variety of charming rambles. But, then, 
your true Canary Islander is not much of a rambler. A slight infusion 
of Anglo-Saxon blood is essential to develop the rambling propensity. 




MILK-VENDEUS. 



TENERIFFE. 127 

The peasants of Laguna still retain one of the ancient costumes of the 
island. White drawers cover the whole leg; over these breeches of blue 
cloth come down nearly to the knee, bound with a scarlet cord, but so 
slashed or cut away over the hips that the garment really consists of lit- 
tle more than flaps in front and behind, resembling cuisses of steel armor. 
Formerly every village had its own costumes, some of them very pictur- 
esque ; but, excepting in the more remote districts, like Chasna and Icod, 
they are gradually passing away. In some of the other islands many cu- 
rious garbs are still in common use. In Teneriffe the country-women in- 
variably wear a white cloth over the head and neck, or a shawl extend- 
ing down the back, evidently to protect the spine from the sun ; over this 
a straw or felt hat is also de rigueur. The men of the lower classes wear 
a blanket cloak, that swells out in stiff and unwieldy barrel-like rotundity, 
and is absurd enough wdien the mercury is at eighty. The purchase of 
one of these cloaks is a matter of great importance, as certain qualities 
enter into its composition without which it is simply useless to offer it 
for sale over any counter in Teneriffe. It must be white, white as snow, 
although immediately after purchasing it the wearer may perhaps fling it 
into the dirt, and it will never henceforward, be other than a dingy brown. 
It must have a blue stripe, with a narrower one of the same color on 
each side near the lower edge ; it must be of uniform thickness — a thin 
spot would ruin it — and the nap must run one way, and that downward, 
in order to make it water-proof. These and other conditions are required 
by the Medo-Persian inflexibility of public opinion among the peasantry 
of Teneriffe. 

We passed many women carrying on their heads boxes containing 
the cochineal bug, which they had bought in Santa Cruz, and were taking 
to the north side to put on the plant. As is generally known, the cochi- 
neal deposits its young on the leaf of the cactus. The mothers are laid 
in thin cambric bags, which are then wrapped around the plant and left 
on until the bug is deposited on the leaf. After reaching maturity the 
bugs are scraped off, and dried in an oven or in the air. Much of the 
island is covered with cactus, and two crops of cochineal are gathered 
in many places ; but the beauty of the landscape is marred by the un- 
sightly fields of cactus bound with white rags. The cochineal, originally 
introduced from Mexico by an enterprising priest who suffered much per- 
secution from the peasants for injuring, as they supposed, a plant whose 
prickly pear supplies them with a staple food, became a source of large 
profit at a time when the disease of the vines cut off the wine crop. But the 
discovery of aniline colors has greatly reduced the demand for cochineal, 



128 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



although they can never altogether supersede the little insect from which 
are obtained the most exquisite red dyes known in modern times. The 




CAMELS AND COCHINEAL-CARRIERS. 



deficiency that might result in the commerce of the islands is at present 
partially made up by an increasing production of onions and potatoes, 
which are largely exported to the West Indies. The climate allows three 
crops of potatoes annually. The cultivation of the vine is also in a meas- 
ure reviving, and perhaps 3000 pipes of various sorts were made at the 
last vintage. The annual yield was formerly over 30,000 pipes. The best 
canary is, like most wines of warm climates, strong. It has a rich golden 
hue and a fine fruity flavor, although inferior to old port or madeira. 

The fig grows in Teneriffe abundantly, producing several excellent 
varieties. During the season the trees are frequented by the capirote, 
which nestles in the dense shade, and feeding on the fruit, gains inspira- 
tion for the exquisite strains which the livelong day add the charm of 
melody to the loveliness that meets the eye at every turn. The notes of 
the capirote rival those of the mocking-bird and the nightingale in variety 
and richness, and it can be easily tamed and taught to imitate the notes 
of other birds; but this modest, pearl-tinted little songster is so sensitive 
that all attempts to acclimate it in other countries have failed. 



TENERIFFE. 



129 



After leaving Laguna we saw many palms, sometimes in clusters; but, 
except at Santa Cruz, they do not produce dates tit to eat. They give an 
Oriental aspect to the landscape, which is heightened by the camels that 
one encounters on the road. But camels are less employed in the island 
than formerly, and, like those of Lancerote, are scarcely tame. It is not 
uncommon for them to charge furiously upon men, not even respecting 
their masters. I have heard that people have been killed in the Canaries 
by camels. This certainly belies the reputation for meekness that they 
have earned in Eastern lands. 

Our road beyond Laguna lay by the sea, or rather at a height of 2000 
or 3000 feet above it, sometimes on the brow of a slope approaching a 
precipice, or again separated from the deep-blue ocean below by a valley 
.studded with hamlets. At noon we stopped at the village of Matanzas 
to lunch and bait the horses. Matanza means "slaughter" in Spanish, 
and the name was given to the place in memory of the severest drubbing 
the Spaniards ever received, in proportion to the numbers engaged on each 
side. Jean de Betancourt, a Norman lord, having heard of the distant 
Canary Islands, and moved by the roving impulse inherited from his an- 
cestors, set out to visit and perhaps conquer them. Finding no French- 
men ready to accompany 
him, he went to Spain, 
where he was joined by 
a cousin, who induced 
some Spanish adventur- 
ers to embark on the gal- 
leys of Betancourt. The 
history of the subsequent 
conquest by Betancourt 
and his successors, and of 
the singular people they 
found and subdued in 
those islands, is full of ro- 
mance and interest. Lan- 
cerote was the first island 
seized. Grand Canary 
was subjugated only af- 
ter seventy - seven years 
of heroic defense on the part of a people who were not destitute of some 
civilization, who displayed many magnanimous traits of character, and 
who yielded at last only when their king had been seized by treachery, 

9 




UKOUP Of CHUZAS, OK HITS, NEAR LAGUNA. 



130 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



and when their numbers were reduced to five hundred. Teneriffe was 
not even visited until after all the other islands of the group had come 
under the Spanish yoke. There are grounds for believing that the Fortu- 
nate Isles, with the exception of Teneriffe, were 
colonized by exiles of war, expelled from Bar- 
bary in Roman times. Aside from traditions 
to this effect, there are many dialectic analogies 
between their language and that of the Berbers, 
as well as resemblances in customs. But the 
natives of Teneriffe differed so much in lan- 
guage and customs from those of the other isl- 
ands as to throw great doubt on their origin. 
The colonizing of Teneriffe by such exiles may, 
however, have been secondary to a previous oc- 
cupation. In those primitive days communica- 
tion between the islands was rare, and it is even 
asserted that boats were unknown there. 

Some stones have recently been discovered 
in Hierro and Las Palmas bearing sculptured 
symbols similar to those found on the shores 
of Lake Superior. This has led M. Bertholet, 
the enthusiastic historiographer of the islands, 
to the conclusion that the first inhabitants of 
the Canaries and those of the great West were one in race. Although he 
has arrived at this result rather hastily, as it would seem, when one con- 
siders the universality of some of the ancient symbols, there is apparently 
some reason to urge further investigations of the subject. 

Only to the tribes of Teneriffe does the term Guanche apply, although 
often given to those of the other islands. The island was divided among 
nine chiefs or kings, and there was a complete organization or feudal 
system, composed of a wealthy class, and of serfs who took charge of the 
flocks, which formed the riches of the island. The code of laws, though 
unwritten, was well defined and strictly administered. One of the upper 
class who so far lowered himself as to milk a goat was degraded to vas- 
salage ; but capital punishment was not allowed. Wars were common, 
chiefly regarding boundaries. The weapons were elaborately carved, and 
the arrow and spear heads were made of obsidian. The food of all 
classes was generally gqfio, a palatable mixture composed of wheat, com, 
or barley, roasted like coffee. It is afterward ground in hand-mills, 
and the flour, mixed with water or milk, is then thoroughly kneaded in 




TENERIFFE COSTCMK. 



TENERIFFE. 



131 



a goat- skin. This dish is still almost universal among the peasantry of 
Teneriffe. The Guanehes drank no cold water for half an hour after 
eating, to avoid injuring the teeth. After death the Guanche was em- 
balmed and sewed up in a tanned goat -skin, and deposited in one of 
the numerous caves with which the island abounds. Four or five mum- 
mies, one of them a princess, another the remains of a guarnateme, 
or chief, of Teyde, in Gran Cauaria, are preserved, with a few other 
Guanche relics, spears, hand-mills, leather pitchers, and the like, in a 
small private museum which I visited at Tacaronte. But the mum- 
mies have otherwise been wantonly destroyed wherever found by the 
peasantry, who regard them with superstitious dread. Some were dis- 
covered in a cave at Santa Lucia while I was at Teneriffe, and were im- 
mediately broken up. There are mummies still known by tradition to 
exist in caves on the edges of precipices, especially at Guimar, and inac- 
cessible unless one chooses to be lowered a thousand feet by a rope. The 
bodies were thus let down and deposited on ledges in the cave mouth, 
w T here they probably remain to this 
day. 

In 1464, the Spaniards, under 
Diego de Herrera, lord of Lance- 
rote, made a landing at Teneriffe. 
They were peaceably received, and 
were permitted to remain and con- 
struct a fort. But the Spaniards 
having been guilty of a gross breach 
of faith, the honest Guanehes were 
so irritated that they arose and 
swept fort and garrison out of ex- 
istence. Naturally infuriated at the 
conduct of barbarians so simple as 
to be exasperated by mere perfidy, 
Alonzo de Lugo landed one thou- 
sand men, in 1493, and, as the na- 
tives were taken by surprise, was 
able to scour the land as far as Oro- 
tava. But the chief of that valley 
sent forward three hundred men under his brother to waylay the Span- 
iards on their return, while he bestirred himself to rouse the rest of the 
island. At Matanzas, previously alluded to, the invaders were attacked, 
and, although armed with mail and arquebuses, they were put to route, los- 




GUANCHE MUMMIES AT TACAKONTE. 



132 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

ing not less than six hundred men in the battle, or rather slaughter. On 
reaching the coast, Alonzo de Lugo was again attacked, and lost one-fourth 
of his remaining force : he thought himself happy to be able to re-em- 
bark with only three hundred out of the thousand men with which he had 
landed a few days previously. Nothing daunted, however, Alonzo de Lugo 
reappeared at Teneriffe with a still larger force; and now the Guanches 
displayed a common sense rare in history. The leading chief of the island 
reasoned that, although he might be able to cope with the army just landed, 
it must be of little ultimate use; for an enemy who, after such a disastrous 
defeat, could so soon put a larger army into the field, must by sheer weight 
of numbers gradually wear out the limited population of Teneriffe. The 
wisest plan, therefore, seemed to be to submit while it was still in their 
power to impose certain conditions, of course accepting Christianity, with- 
out doing which they would all have been roasted. By the influence of 
this king all the island was brought to submit to the Spaniards. Alonzo 
de Lugo became adelantado, leaving a large posterity to transmit his name, 
and the Guanches, instead of being exterminated, were absorbed into the 
Spanish race. But the peasant of the western part of the island still shows 
the lineaments of a race that peopled these islands before the Goth had 
issued from the North, or the Saracen from the South, to form, in Iberia, 
the present race of Spain. Until quite recently, Guanches of purely ab- 
original blood were still to be found at Chasna. 

While we have been glancing briefly at the history of the conquest, 
the bony horses, three abreast, and well-nigh devoured by the flies, which, 
it must be confessed, are sufficiently numerous to amount to a plague in 
Teneriffe, have carried us past Sausal, where the peak should burst on the 
sight, revealing its proportions as from no other part of the island. But 
the peak was concealed in dense layers of the trade-wind cloud, and con- 
tinued so for ten days after my arrival. This sublime prospect was there- 
fore reserved for my return, as the final picture in a succession of mag- 
nificent scenes, which were revealed one by one, during my sojourn at 
Orotava. Could I have arranged everything with the purpose of pro- 
ducing the most effective impression, it could not have been better de- 
vised. Five hours brought us to the valley of Orotava, although another 
hour or two was required to complete the journey to the fonda at the 
puerto, which could be reached only on donkey or horse back. 

Situated 300 feet above the sea, Mrs. Turnbull's comfortable little 
boarding-house was perhaps too inconveniently located for transient vis- 
itors ; but for those who, either for pleasure or health, desire to spend 
delicious days of poetic indolence gazing on the noble prospect — the 



TENERIFFE. 



133 



mountains and the valley, and the sea that lashes the volcanic beach from 
age to age — a more admirable situation could scarcely have been selected. 
As regards climate, the temperature at that height cannot be surpassed 
on this imperfect planet of ours. The trade-winds, which are hardly felt 
at the sea-level, there impart a reviving coolness to the air of midsummer. 
Fifty-eight degrees Fahrenheit is the lowest the mercury falls in winter. 
From sixty-eight to seventy-two degrees is the average height it reaches 
in summer. In the jpuerto below, the glass descends to sixty-four in the 
house in winter, and never rises above eighty. Add to this that the cli- 




C1TY OK SAN JUAN OKOTAVA. 



mate is dry — more so than that of the Bahamas or Madeira, both cele- 
brated resorts for invalids— and the winds moderate. Santa Cruz is gen- 
erally too warm, although the heat is not so much excessive as steady ; 
while Laguna, to which residents of the island resort in summer for a 
more bracing air, is perhaps too damp and windy for invalids who come 
from abroad. But Orotava seems to combine all that is desirable from a 
sanitary point of view for those who are afflicted with pulmonary com- 
plaints, rheumatism, or neuralgia in its protean forms ; also, perhaps, for 
those wasting away with that terrible malady, Bright's disease, if fhey can 
endure the voyage. 



134 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



The valley of Orotava is more properly a slope than a valley. From 
the crater of the Canadas a central ridge, called the Cumbre, runs to La- 

guna, where it is continued by a 
ridge of another formation run- 
ning to Anaga Point. From this 
ridge, where it meets the Cana- 
das, a magnificent bastion, called 
Mount Tigayga, stretches for sev- 
eral miles, like a stupendous wall, 
on one side of the slope, throwing 
out into the valley buttresses of 
astonishing grandeur, often near- 
ly vertical for thousands of feet. 
On the eastern side another moun- 
tain, nearly as sublime, bounds 
the slope. Between these two 
lateral mountains the celebrated 
valley of Orotava rises by a very 
gradual but unbroken ascent from 
the coast until it reaches the cen- 
tral ridge, some 7000 feet above 
the sea. The shore sometimes 
terminates in abrupt precipices 
of lava and basalt, or in a rocky beach of slag, whitened for evermore 
by the surges of the hoarse Atlantic. Three miles from the coast lies 
Orotava, an ancient-looking town of perhaps 6000 inhabitants. Here are 
houses quaint with dilapidation and a certain musty air of decayed splen- 
dor. It is still the residence of several Spanish families of title — counts, 
marquises, and dons of high and low degree. A church of some architect- 
ural merit, but incomplete, occupies a prominent position; and some of 
the gardens of the place are stocked with exotics. 

I. observed here a very pretty custom, common in other towns of the 
island, but seen in its perfection at Orotava. On the fete-days -of the 
Church the streets through which the procession passes are strewn with 
carpets of flowers. This is done by gathering the petals of various brill- 
iant flowers into separate baskets. A mould is laid on the pavement rep- 
resenting the pattern. In one compartment rose petals are dropped, in 
another marigold, in another violet, and so on. All the divisions having 
been filled with petals an inch deep, the mould is carefully removed, and 
a most beautiful painting appears, magnificent as the richest of stained- 




DltAGON-I'KEE AS IX WAS. 



TENERIFFE. 



135 



glass windows. Before private houses the ladies sometimes assist in this 
pious and poetic art, which, as may be easily understood, would be im- 
possible in a land where flowers are scarce or where the winds are rude. 

In the garden of the Marquis of Sausal stood what was considered on 
the highest authority to be the oldest known tree in the world, the famous 
dragon-tree of Orotava. Five thousand years was the least age that could 
be assigned to it. It was over eighty feet high, and of enormous circum- 
ference, but had been reduced to a mere shell, although still green at the 
top, and with a possibility of centuries yet before it. The marquis paid 
no heed to its decrepit condition, and the venerable patriarch was left 

without support. Eight „_^ -_ 

years ago a hurricane 
swept the island, and in 
that wild night, while 
the thunders raged, while 
the winds screamed over 
houses unroofed, while 
ships foundered with all 
on board, the old dragon- 
tree that had survived 
the fall of empires, and 
the earthquake - shocks 
and fiery torrents of 
volcanoes, at last w r ent 
down. What relic-hunt- 
ers and fuel -seekers — 
with shame, be it said — 
have left of this patri- 
arch now lies a mere 
heap of red bark, and 
nothing more. Thedrao;- 
on-tree, so called from 
its red sap, formerly 
used as a dye, is com- 
mon in the Canary Isl- 
ands, and many very fine 
specimens of it are to 
be seen there. 

Below the town is the celebrated botanic garden of Teneriffe, which 
would be more properly termed a garden of acclimation. Great hopes 




BOTANIC GARDENS, OROTAVA. 



136 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

of its usefulness were entertained at its inception; but a larger experience, 
and the extensive greenhouses put up more recently in northern climes, 
have to a degree neutralized its value, although it is still well tended by 
the intelligent superintendent, Mr. Wilpert. The Puerto de Orotava is a 
sleepy little place of about the same size as the villa, or upper town, but, 
on the whole, more cheerful, and with a certain amusing assumption of 
thrift, not to say bustle, about it during the onion and potato season, when 
the diminutive mole is piled with the odoriferous bulbs, and the lighters 
row out through the narrow passage among the rocks, and ride over the 
heavy swell, upon which the ships pitch and roll in a most uneasy man- 
ner, moored by the stern as well as the bow, and with the breakers often 
just under the quarter. The regularity of the winds makes accidents rare, 
but I should, notwithstanding, wish a ship well insured if I were to send 
her to Orotava for a cargo of onions. The number of crosses at the port, 
in shrines, on the house-walls, or over the gates, is remarkable. 

Three miles to the westward of the port is the Val Taoro, a regular 
depression of the slope, but with a steeper incline. Here is the straggling 
village of Realejo, very striking and picturesque. The women of this 
plaee are more fair and plump than most of the countrywomen of Tene- 
riffe, because, some say, of the wonderful air of the locality, and others 
because of their Norman descent. In the small church attached to the con- 
vent of San Francisco there is a carved cedar roof, exquisitely beautiful. 

The flora of Teneriffe is said to be exceedingly rich ; this, however, 
must be taken as implying variety in its botanic specimens rather than 
such a general luxuriance of verdure as is found in Madeira or Jamaica. 
The chestnut forests which once covered the valley have been largely cut 
down to make room for the culture of the cochineal ; and the vestiges of 
volcanic action abounding on all sides in the form of streams of lava or 
slag, in dark-brown cliffs and mounds, and numerous walls and huge piles 
of lava stones, of which the fields have to be cleared before the}' can be 
cultivated, together with long stretches of unsightly cactus or poisonous 
euphorbia, sometimes give the landscape an air of desolation. But these 
features are soon forgotten in the grander objects which Orotava presents. 
To appreciate the valley of Orotava, one must give to it weeks and months 
of passive, reverent observation and reflection. It is not in the minute 
details, but in its general effect, that it should be regarded, like a painting 
executed broadly, and leaving the imaginative mind to supply the details. 
So viewed, the majestic slope of Orotava, encircled by the mountains and 
the sea, wearing on its bosom its cluster of beautiful towns, and robing 
itself in the vegetation of all climes, offers one of the most remarkable 



TENEIUFFE. 



137 



landscapes on the globe, if not indeed the most remarkable. Whether 
seen from Icod Alto, on the brow of Tigayga, or from the opposite side, 
or from the beach, or from the town, it everywhere overwhelms one more 
and more with its matchless magnificence and sublimity. The last time 
I saw it from the shore was at sunset. Not a cloud obscured the vast 
amphitheatre before me. The upper heights were bathed in purple. Be- 




VIEW OF THE PEAK FROM OROTAVA. 



yond Tigayga, far up in the blue, the white cone of the peak towered in 
regal solitude, a wreath of golden clouds above its head, and seemingly 
ablaze in the ruddy glow of the sun dropping below the ocean's verge. 
Purple shadows crept over the lower part of the slope until they grad- 
ually mantled the ridges of Tigayga and the Caiiadas. But long after, 
like a star in the firmament, the extreme summit of the Piton gleamed 
alone in the heavens. 



13S 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



From Orotava I made a trip to Icod, distant twenty miles to the west- 
ward. The road was remarkable only for its rugged, not to say danger- 
ous, character. We scaled the lower heights of Tigayga, and, passing the 

village of Guanche, reached Icod to- 
ward evening. The volcanic desola- 
tions through which we had picked 
our way moderated somewhat as we 
approached the little place, and it was 
almost with surprise I found myself 
in a well-built, picturesque town with 
considerable pretensions to beauty. 
The situation is certainly very fine. 
The view of the peak is the chief 
object of interest at Icod, and one 
who has never ascended it can ob- 
tain a better idea of the cone from 
Icod than from the valley of Oro- 
tava. There is in the garden adjoin- 
ing the fonda, at Icod, the oldest and 
noblest dragon-tree now known to 
exist. It is in excellent condition, 
and can hardly be less than 3000 
years old. Another object of inter- 
est is the cave of the Guanches, close 
to the town. A formidable supply of pitch-pine fagots having been pre- 
pared, I followed the guide through a crevice so low that one must enter 
it on his knees. The cave is long, narrow, and winding, generally from 
ten to fifteen feet high, but sometimes so low that we were forced to crawl. 
It is also so regular in its width as to seem like an artificial subterranean 
passage. After walking a third of a mile in darkness, a gleam of light 
was seen at last, and we reached the other end of the cave. Here it 
widened to a moderate-sized hall, and remains of mummies were to be 
seen on the ground and in crevices in the wall. Although there were 
some dusky rays of light here, there was no exit ; only a low aperture 
where the light came from, which I was able to reach by creeping face to 
the ground. I put my head out and found myself directly over a lofty 
precipice, at the foot of which the ocean dashed with unceasing roar. 
Burial-place more impressive could hardly be imagined. 

Three miles beyond Icod is Guarachico, which once owned the finest 
harbor in the Canaries, and was a city of commercial importance. But 




PEASANT Sl'lNNlNU. 



TENERIFFE. 



130 



two centuries ago the town was overwhelmed by volcanic eruptions and 
the port rilled up with a torrent of lava. A little fishing village now 
stands where the former port was. Guanche was written on the face of 
most of the peasants I saw in that district. On Corpus Christi Day they 
were all out, and I had a good opportunity of observing them. It may 
be added that the fond a at Icod is very comfortable, and visitors are not 
badly entertained. The return by a lower road along the coast, through 
the villages of Santa Caterina, La Rambla, and San Juan de la Rambla, 
was very pleasing. The road, although very rough and stony, offers many 
striking views and objects of interest. 

Before leaving Orotava I ascended the peak of Teyde. It was toward 
the last of May, but still somewhat earlier than it is usually attempted, 
and mine was, therefore, the first ascent of the season. The number who 
go up the peak during the year is always very limited, perhaps a dozen, 
and generally they are travellers from abroad, who come there expressly 
for that purpose. The difficulty of the undertaking and lack of enter- 
prise deter most of the residents from trying it. The muleteer and 
guide were my only companions. We 
started at five in the morning. My 
mule, when I mounted him, acted in 
a manner that aroused grave suspi- 
cions as to his character, and his sub- 
sequent conduct during this and the 
following day confirmed my suspi- 
cions. The sumpter-mule generally 
comported himself with propriety. 
Not only the mules, but also the 
horses of Teneriffe, bear a very bad 
reputation. We passed through Ee- 
alejo up the Val Taora, and for sev- 
eral thousand feet the ascent was 
moderate, although the road soon de- 
generated into a rough bridle-path. 
At a height of 3000 feet we entered 
the stratum of trade -wind cloud, 
which continued to conceal all ob- 
jects from view except those in the 
immediate vicinity, and at the same time tempered the heat of the sun. 
This continued up to nearly 6000 feet above the sea, when we suddenly 
emerged and saw the vast sheet of cloud spread like a snowy table-land 




A PEASANT-WOMAN OF ICOD. 



140 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

between the island and the offing. The entire absence of running streams, 
and the perfect stillness of the air — undisturbed by the music of wood- 
land water-falls or any other appreciable sound, except now and then the 
voices of peasants descending the mountain under their loads of brush- 
wood — became very noticeable soon after we left Realejo. 

Five thousand feet up, we left behind all traces of vegetation except 
grass and ferns. The ferns kept us company until we reached the stratum 
of heather, as it may be called. After a while the heather became scarce, 
and the retama began to appear, until, at a height of 7000 feet, nothing 
green was to be seen but tufts of retama. The retama is a species of 
broom peculiar to the Canary Islands ; that of Teneriffe is, again, a dis- 
tinct kind, found nowhere else, and never there below 6000 feet above the 
sea. It reminds one alternately of the yew and the cedar, reaching a very 
good size sometimes, although diminishing in growth as one ascends the 
mountain. In summer it is covered with clusters of white flowers. 

The approach to the Canadas grew more and more rugged and sterile. 
Pumice-stone, volcanic rocks, and lava towers became more frequent, until 
we finally scaled the slope which seemed to keep us still within sight and 
sound and reach of life, and entered the vast crater called the Canadas, 
on the eastern side, where its sides are most broken. The formation of 
the peak now for the first time became clear and intelligible to me. We 
found ourselves on the floor of a crater ten miles in diameter, thirty miles 
in circumference, circular, but slightly elliptical, in shape. This floor is 
covered with yellow pumice-stone, generally level, with here and there a 
moderate depression, and resembling in barrenness, atmospheric dryness, 
and concentration of heat a section of the Desert of Sahara. Around it 
rise the sides of the crater, sufficiently bold to convey the idea of a sur- 
rounding wall, sometimes springing aloft in splintered perpendicular peaks 
2000 feet high; the loftiest of them is named Guajara. The soft purple 
hues of these crater walls and battlements, contrasted with the sea of glar- 
ing pumice-stone, was very beautiful. Near the centre of the Canadas the 
great cone swells abruptly w T ith a dome-like outline, suggesting in its pro- 
portions the peculiar curve of the cupola of St. Sophia, although certainly 
more steep as seen from some points. The great dome is supported pn 
the east side by the Montana Blanca, a huge mound covered with pumice- 
stone, rising like a buttress from the Canadas. Vast cataracts of brown 
and black lava, solidified into permanent forms, corrugate the sides of the 
peak. The peak or dome rises over 4000 feet above the Canadas, and 
terminates in another crater, called the Rambleta. Out of the Kambleta 
rises the little peak of Teyde, or the Piton, 600 feet higher, conical, and at 



TENERIFFE. 



141 



an angle excessively steep, terminating in a point and a third diminutive 
crater, above which we discerned very distinctly, against the blue sky, 
thin columns of white vapor shooting np with an uncertain motion, like 
tongues of white flame from a smouldering fire. 

Such was the scene before us as we entered the Canadas, majestic, 
solitary, desolate, beyond the power of language to describe. It seemed 
best, before going farther, to fortify ourselves for the additional labors of 
the day with a substantial lunch ; and in the absence of other shade we 
took shelter in the shadow of one of the great rocks which strew the Caila- 
das — a mystery to scientific experts, although nothing seemed plainer to 




PEAK OF TENERIFFE, AS SEEN ON APPROACHING THE LARGE CRATER. 

me than that they must have rolled down from the lava torrents on the 
slope of the peak. 

A long and hot, but not tedious, ride over the Canadas and the Mon- 
tana Blanca at length brought us to the foot of the peak, and to a seri- 
ous consideration of the task yet to be accomplished. Bugged Plutonian 
ridges of black lava, warmed here and there by brown slag or gleaming 
in the sun like glass, where a mass, breaking off, had left a smooth surface, 
rose above us like some Titanic fortress. A very severe climb brought 
us to the Estancia de los Ingleses, over 10,000 feet above the sea. Here 
are some rocks so clustered as to afford a shelter, so that it is generally 
the spot where travellers halt for the night. It has been called after 



142 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

the English, because they furnish the largest number of visitors to the 
peak. 

As daylight was yet abundant, I concluded to abridge the labors of 
the morrow by ascending a thousand feet higher and spending the night 
at Alta Vista, a plateau two or three acres in extent, occupied by Profes- 
sor Piazzi Smyth when engaged in taking astronomical observations at 
Teneriffe, in 1856. He spent several weeks on Guajara, and then removed 
to Alta Vista, where he pursued his labors for a month. The numerous 
corps of attendants at his disposal enabled him to erect two little huts 
there; but few vestiges of these now remain to indicate that human beings 
ever occupied that lonely height. The retama, which had been growing 
more and more scarce, ceased, together with all other signs of vegetation, 
soon after we left the Estancia, and we were obliged to carry up bits of 
dry retama to our halting-place for the fire, which was indispensable. A 
fragment of one of Professor Smyth's walls afforded a partial shelter; on 
the other side a black mass of slag contributed its aid, but roof, of course, 
there was none. The fire was soon going, but the water the muleteers 
had brought was so muddy that we should have been poorly off for tea if 
there had not been a bank of snow within a dozen feet of the fire. With 
melted snow a delicious cup of tea was brewed very soon, but it was 
noticeable how rapidly it cooled at that height. 

Below us lay the yellow floor of the Caiiadas ; beyond that, the stra- 
tum of trade-wind clouds ; and below these, the sea fading into the sky. 
Around us circled masses of lava presenting an astonishing, singularly 
grotesque variety of form ; here a ridge of Moorish battlements ; there 
a gigantic goat, standing against the sky as if startled and on the alert ; 
then it seemed to be a dragon or a griffin sculptured out of lava that 
met the eye. As the view was unobstructed toward the east, we saw the 
shadow of the peak thrown across the sea at sunset, and reaching up to- 
ward the zenith as the sun declined. The color of the shadow was of the 
most exquisite purple, delicate and elusive at the edges, but at the same 
time very impressive. Twilight was soon over, and the full moon sud- 
denly appeared. A low wind from the eastward now began to blow, in- 
creasing until it became a gale, boisterous and gusty, the blasts coming 
sometimes from every quarter at once, as it seemed to us. This wind con- 
tinued all night, intensely searching and violent. The muleteers tended 
the fire, and bent over it wrapped in their huge mantles. Two blankets, 
two coats and an overcoat, two pairs of pantaloons, and a carpet under 
and over me were insufficient to drive away the sensation of cold, and I 
slept not a wink all night. Soon after 3 a.m. we took some tea, and by 



TENERIFFE. 143 

the light of a lantern started for the summit. "We entered immediately 
on the Malpays, which can only be described as a mass of lava blocks, 
from one to twenty feet long, but generally not above five feet square, 
of all shapes, heaped together like ice hummocks in the most inconceiva- 
ble manner. Often there were cavities between them, into which one 
might easily fall several feet. The stones were piled one over the other 
to an unknown depth, and great caution was required in springing over 
them, especially with only the dim glimmer of a lantern to guide us. 
After climbing up a thousand feet over this volcanic debris, we came 
again in sight of the little peak, and, passing some vents, through which 
issued jets of vapor, emerged on the Rambleta, or second crater, which 
is covered with pumice-stone. We were soon across this, and grappled 
with the Piton, which is not less steep than the largest of the Pyramids, 
but probably contains twice the number of cubic feet. It is about 600 
feet in height, chiefly of pumice-stone, with bits of rock projecting here 
and there, and serving as resting-places for the climber. When we were 
half-way up, the sun burst suddenly above the sea, apparently out of in- 
stead of beyond it. The variety and beauty of the tints in the lower sky 
at the time were very remarkable. The peculiar golden -yellow glow 
thrown by the sun on the trade-wind clouds directly under it, which lasted 
fur two hours, was such as I have seen under no other circumstances, nor 
does it appear to have been observed by other travellers. 

This part of the ascent was very fatiguing. Humboldt said that Tene- 
riffe was, with the exception of Jurnllo, in Mexico, the most difficult moun- 
tain he had ever ascended. He did not exaggerate the difficulties. Pro- 
fessor Smyth rather takes him to task for this statement, unreasonably, as I 
think, for the professor did not himself undertake it until he had seasoned 
his lungs to the rarefied air on Guajara for six weeks. He then spent 
some days at Alta Vista ; and after a capital night's rest, without having 
wasted his energies on the previous day in climbing, went up to the Ram- 
bleta. There he ate a hearty breakfast before attempting the little peak, 
and then, after all this preparation and training, he undertakes to assure 
us that Humboldt, a veteran mountain climber, overestimated the difficul- 
ties of Teneriffe. 

While we were still over one hundred feet from the summit, a gust of 
wind suddenly wafted the fumes of sulphur so strongly from the crater 
that for a moment I was almost overcome by it ; but as we neared the 
top, the oppression grew less — a phenomenon I find it difficult to explain. 
The crater which fitly terminates the celebrated peak of Teneriffe is per- 
haps seventy yards in diameter, with a rim abrupt and sharp, but rather 



144 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



lower on the western side. It appears to be gradually filling up. Pro- 
fessor Smyth, twenty years ago, observed that it was more shallow than as 
described by Humboldt or Yan Buck, and the floor seems now still more 
elevated ; I say elevated, for that must be the process, since there is noth- 
ing from outside to account for the decreasing depth. The different tints 
of the stones in or on the edge of the crater are varied and beautiful ; 
but the prevailing colors which strike the eye are the straw-yellow and 
pale -green of the sulphur, which lies in separate masses, or covers the 
rocks with moist sulphur crystals. Yapor constantly arose from the bot- 
tom of the crater, and the soil was warm, 
although a little snow still lingered in the 
crevices. The wind was keen and violent. 
The sky above was unclouded, and of a 
deep azure. This intense hue of the heav- 
ens has been the subject of philosophical 
speculation ; but it was not as dark and 
opacpie as I have repeatedly seen it at the 
top of Pico Ruivo, and other mountains of 
Madeira, which have only half the altitude 
of Teneriffe. Several thousand feet below 
us the impenetrable curtain of trade-wind 
cloud was spread like a frozen land at the 
pole, and like the sea dovetailing with the 
land, filling every bay and inlet, and dash- 
ing surf -like against the cliffs, yet calm 
and noiseless, altering its forms so slowly 
as to be imperceptible. The higher ridges 
towered above it like islands, while here 
and there slopes could be seen below it, 
but veiled in a dark purple gloom that seemed to isolate them from the 
rest of the world forever. Beyond this cloud-land arose the edge of the 
ocean, joining the sky by an invisible line. The trade- wind caused a 
haze, which concealed several of the Fortunate Isles ; but Grand Canary, 
Hierro, Gomera, and La Palma, with its astonishing outline, containing the 
deepest crater on the face of the globe, were quite distinct. The extent 
of ocean visible from the Peak of Teneriffe is nearly 300 miles in diam- 
eter in very clear weather, or about 900 miles in circumference. In win- 
ter, when other winds prevail, the whole group is distinctly seen ; but few 
have ever cared to ascend the Peak when deep snows envelop it with 
almost arctic austerity. 




IXlalLME OF PEASANT. 



TENERIFFE. 145 

On returning over the Malpays, we stopped to examine the ice-cave, 
where, alone on the mountain, snow and water can be found at all times 
of the year. It would seem to be a sort of vent, or air-bubble, in the lava, 
made when it was at its hottest. On reaching our bivouac, we breakfasted 
as well as the circumstances would allow, and then packed up the "traps'* 
and prepared to go. But the unexpected conduct of the mules delayed 
us for nearly two hours, incredible as it may appear. Three times my 
mule kicked off his saddle, which, after the girths were torn to pieces, was 
with great difficulty made fast by a bit of rope. To mount the brute was 
about as difficult as to saddle him. The sumpter-mule also astonished us 
by suddenly laying back his ears, throwing up his heels with a snort that 
was quite satanic in its tone, and, without the slightest provocation, flinging 
the basket of crockery and provisions over his head. Plates, bottles, and 
cups were demolished in the general wreck. In order to mount, I had to 
approach my mule from his head, and seize my chance when he seemed 
exhausted with his diabolical efforts. He might have repeatedly flung 
me a thousand feet in the air as we descended the precipices of Tigay- 
ga, and effectually prevented the writing of this veracious record. As 
he did not thus take advantage of me when I was on his back, it is only 
fair to suppose he had a little conscience left, and he should have the 
benefit of the doubt, since I finally succeeded in reaching Orotava with- 
out further mishap than a face burned almost beyond recognition by the 
winds of the Peak and the scorching sun of the Canadas. 

10 



14G THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



CHAPTER VII. 

NEWFOUNDLAND. 

EARLY in August, I took passage in the little English brig-schooner 
Clara, for St. Johns, Newfoundland. It was a pleasant morning 
when we cast off from Long Wharf, and dropped down the harbor be- 
fore a light breeze, which gradually fanned the deeply laden craft out- 
side of Boston Light. The wind freshened, and everything promised fair 
until after nightfall, when the heavy curtain of gloom which overhung 
the land behind us, from whence issued ominous flashes, and the low growl 
of distant thunder indicated a severe storm travelling along the shore. 
It was evident after a while, from the increasing vividness of the light- 
ning and the mist that was encircling us, that we were not to escape a 
touch of the storm. About midnight the wind struck us with the force 
of a heavy squall from the south-west. The storm w T as moving in a circle. 
We were now past Cape Cod ; so the brig ran for an hour under easy sail 
before the gale, when, finding the wind likely to hold, Captain Byrnes 
hove to under close-reefed foretop-sail, and fore and main staysails. The 
sea was rising fast ; but the Clara rode like a duck, dry and easy on the 
seething waters, and about sunrise the force of the gale blew itself out. 
An observation at noon showed us to have been driven, by wind and cur- 
rents combined, to the south of the " Georges." All sail was now made, 
and I then had an opportunity to take a quiet survey of the ship's com- 
pany. 

All on board were natives of Newfoundland, excepting the captain, 
who was a native of Dublin ; a Prussian before the mast — the best sailor 
on board ; and the writer ; and all, with two exceptions, were of Irish 
descent, and good "Romans." I shared the diminutive cabin with four 
seal-hunters and sailors, who had turned junk-dealers for the nonce, and 
had just disposed of a cargo of junk in Boston, and were returning with 
an assorted cargo, part of which — a deck-load of apples — contributed to- 
ward making the brig roll hard, and so overcrowded the deck that it was 
a ticklish operation passing fore and aft in bad weather to shorten sail, 



NEWFOUNDLAND. 



147 



when blocks and sheets were snapping furiously, and she was laying her 
scuppers under. A young mechanic, with his wife and another young 
woman, completed the list of first-class passengers. The young wife was 
very pretty, but she had a temper rougher than a file, and a sea-voyage 
did not improve it. To say that the accommodations were of the most 
limited and primitive character, and that the fare was far inferior to 




THE SPOUT OFF CAPE BliOYLE. 



what is furnished to seamen in the forecastle of American ships, is no 
exaggeration. Salt junk of the very worst description, and pilot -bread 
highly seasoned with the flavor of the kerosene oil and tar in the run, 
formed our diet, with a few potatoes, which soon gave out, and some to- 
matoes, intended for the owner, but served out to us in small rations as 
fast as they decayed. The unfailing good-humor of Captain Byrnes, whose 
broad face presided benignantly at the table which he and the owner had 



148 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

conspired to furnish so meagrely, and the Attic salt and Irish wit of the 
junk-dealers, were of some avail in covering the deficiencies of the Clara 's 
lockers. Nothing could exceed the garrulousness of these worthy island- 
ers; and only the flashes of genuine humor and wit which enlivened their 
talk made their everlasting chatter endurable. Early and late they main- 
tained the wordy Donnybrook, the endless discussions on questions sug- 
gested by their own experience regarding salvage, invoices, the rights of 
ships as carriers, quirks of marine law, the treatment of wives, and the 
like — all stale and prosy enough, but rendered novel by the animation, 
earnestness, dogmatism, and occasional shrewdness displayed, and the 
strongly marked individuality of the speakers. The debates were always 
spiced by the sallies of Johnnie Feene, who, though usually on the wrong 
side of an argument, often, by a neat repartee, threw unexpected confusion 
into the ranks of the opposition. Amidst a number of pithy sentiments 
which passed at random from one side to the other, two or three struck 
me as meaning more than, perhaps, the speakers themselves realized at the 
time. Said one of the disputants, "Ay, but remember, sur, that New- 
foundland is two cinturies behind the times;" a strange admission from 
an old sea-dog, and a Roman Catholic at that, who boasted elsewhere of 
the influence of Romanism on the island. 

Another said, " Maybe ye're right, but thin there's a great difference be- 
tween justice and law." So there is, my man, thought I ; and bad luck to 
them that have wrought this divorce between right and intellectual might! 

A third, in reply to the observation, " Shnre, but ivery man defers to 
his own opinion," replied, "And of coorse; for ivery man's mind is a king- 
dom to him." Now, here w r as a man who could not be accused of ever 
having read " Percy's Reliques," or any extracts therefrom, giving utter- 
ance to this idea in words almost identical with the first line of the beau- 
tiful piece well known to all lovers of English poetry, " My mind to me 
a kingdom is." The fact is, that the same thoughts in similar language 
often occur to different minds without collusion, in different ages and 
countries ; and what critics who have not studied their own or others' 
mental phases choose to stigmatize as plagiarism, is of much less frequent 
occurrence than they represent. Indeed, I am inclined to think that very 
often this charge is made simply that the critic may display his own ac- 
quaintance with the passage he cites, in proof of the charges so lightly 
adduced by his officious pen. 

But if there was one topic more discussed by these junk philosophers 
than another, it was the supernatural. Bushnell would have found them 
in full accord as to the reality of the supernatural and its relation to nat- 



NEWFOUNDLAND. 



149 



nre; and Robert Dale Owen's "Foot-falls on the Boundary of Another 
World " contains nothing more startling than the weird, mysterious yarns 
which were nightly told from actual personal experience in the little 
crowded cabin of the Clara; told, too, in earnest tone to listeners who 
heard with bated breath, and, on occasion, corroborated the truth of the 
most impossible incidents. By attending with becoming gravity and an 
air of implicit faith, which, sooth to tell, almost turned sometimes into 
actual belief, I was permitted to hear the story of many a rare adventure 
or encounter with the powers of darkness. 

As I listened one night by the smoky lantern, with the gravity of a 
thorough believer, the captain asked me in a whisper how I could keep 




ENTRANCE TO THE HARBOK OF ST. JOHNS. 



such a sober face, for he knew I did not believe a word that was said, and 
he did not believe more than half of it himself. 

"Ah ! but don't you see," I replied, " that if I were to laugh, or appear 
incredulous, it would shut them right up? And I like to hear a good yarn 
as well as any man." 

One of the narrators had fought an hour with the body of a deceased 
friend ; another had been stopped on the public road to Waterford Bridge 
by a " sperrit " in the shape of a black dog ; another had been within an 
ace of recovering hidden " threasure " from a foundered frigate ; while a 
fourth had assisted in drawing "an irron chist of threasure" to the water's 
edge, when the ghost of a man, who had been killed and buried with it to 
keep watch over it, suddenly appeared, and, giving him a blow in the face, 
spirited the chest away, nevermore to be seen by mortal eye. 



150 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

Johnnie Feene, of course, had his quota of marvels to relate, all of 
them sufficiently entertaining. One of his stories recounted the experi- 
ence of a friend who, four years previously, had left his family starving 
at Bay of Bulls village, and gone to St. Johns in search of employment. 
Failing of this, he started for home, aud was met after nightfall by a 
black dog, who addressed him, and then assuming human shape, informed 
him that he was an enchanted person fixed by a spell in a subterranean 
cavern near the Bay of Bulls, and that his enchantment could only be 
abated by the entrance of some one sufficiently bold to brave the guar- 
dians of the cave and carry thence the riches it contained. 

Overjoyed at the suggestion, the fisherman gladly volunteered to accom- 
pany the enchanted stranger, who accordingly introduced him to a sub- 
terranean hall, vast, and gorgeous with Oriental magnificence, where the 
wealth of the Indies lay apparently at his disposal, and he had it in his 
power not only to relieve the poverty of his condition, but also to become 
the most opulent of Queen " Victhoria's " subjects. But suddenly he was 
assailed by a troop of unwholesome ghouls, who so disturbed his resolu- 
tion that he fled to the upper air, renouncing possession of the riches in 
his grasp, and leaving the enchanted man enchanted there forever. 

Yery naturally, I was led to conclude that a more behaunted, be- 
witched, and ghost-ridden country nowhere exists than this same New- 
foundland, which seemed to be an outlying station of Pandemonium, as 
full of hidden treasures as the old haunts of Captain Kidd, as beset with 
enchantments as the brain of Don Quixote, as packed with ill-omened 
spirits as Alloway Kirk. The imagination of these prosaic, storm-beaten 
old fishermen of Labrador teems with the feverish fancies of a nervous 
child. The black dog figures in most of their legends, and is evidently 
the bete noir of the Newfoundlands imagination. 

But all this time we were sailing toward our destination slowly, but 
steadily. The dashing tide-rips indicated that we were on the " Georges," 
" the graveyard of Cape Ann," as those shoals are rightly regarded, and 
the fishing-schooners dotting the offing showed we were on the fishing- 
grounds. It is very strange that no light-ship has ever been stationed on 
these dangerous shoals : many a ship must have met her fate on Cultiva- 
tor's Ledge, where the depth is but three feet at mean low tide. It is not 
too late for Government to put up a beacon there, and thus mitigate the 
perils of one of the sailor's worst foes. ' A south-wester took us toward 
Sable Island, but the currents seemed to combine with calms to set us 
nearer a direct line with that island than was comfortable. Somehow the 
brig failed to make the desired northing, and two successive observations 



NEWFOUNDLAND. 



151 



did not allay the difficulty. It happened about this time that I took a 
trick at the wheel. We were running with the wind just abaft of the star- 
board quarter, and I noticed that the vessel, being too much by the head 
and carrying too weather a helm, from the pressure of her large main-sail, 
''griped" — that is, had a tendency to fly into the wind — which rather aided 
in giving us a drift to starboard. On informing the captain of this, he 
immediately took in the main-sail and gaff-topsail, and kept the vessel away 
two points. The next observation indicated a very decided improvement 
in the ship's course, and on the following day we had the satisfaction of 
seeing in the southern horizon the low globular clouds called wool-packs, 
which in clear weather hang over the island and show where it lies when 
too distant to be visible. 




ASCENT TO A " FLAKE." 



Sable Island is the bugbear of the mariners coasting in its vicinity. 
It is so low that it cannot be descried until close at hand ; and is besides 
enveloped in dense fogs half the time, and so beset with swift tides and 
currents as to make it a very treacherous spot. Simply a sand-bank scarce 
elevated above the ocean level, its sands are constantly shifting and alter- 
ing its shape ; so easily, in fact, are its sands blown to and fro, that ship- 
masters who are wrecked there are recommended to make no effort to 
escape, as the sand will at once begin to gather around the grounded ves- 
sel and form a breakwater that will enable the crew to escape at their 
leisure. So soft and yielding is the beach that, some years ago, on a quiet 
moonlight night, a vessel went ashore there so easily that none of the crew 
were aware when it happened ; the watch were asleep, including the man 
at the wheel ; the captain was in his bunk. And there she lay until day- 



152 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

light ; then the master went on deck, and behold ! his vessel was hopelessly 
aground on Sable Island ! He afterward received another ship, but con- 
trived to leave her ribs also bleaching on the same unlucky spot, and it is 
almost needless to say was not again intrusted with a command. The 
island is inhabited only by a corps of Government wreckers, who commu- 
nicate with the main-land once a month, and two or three hundred wild 
ponies, bred from a stock wrecked there in colonial times. 

From Sable Island we beat up abreast of Canso, and made Scatari 
Light, at the extreme eastern end of Cape Breton, on the tenth evening. 
Louisbnrg, or what grass-covered mounds remain of that once famous for- 
tress, lay hidden in the gloom to leeward, even its light being invisible. 
The light-keeper had probably gone off to a dance. It was a black night, 
and unpleasantly calm considering the proximity of the shore, and that 
the tide was swinging us helplessly toward the rocks, against which we 
could hear more and more distinctly the deep rote of the long ocean swell. 
But about nine we heard a wind rushing over the water, which soon filled 
our sails, and sent us plunging toward Cape Race, three hundred and fifty 
miles away ; and a race indeed we had of it, running before a stiff breeze 
under press of sail, rolling gunwale under in the heavy following surges, 
the porpoises playing around the foaming bow with phosphorescent trail, 
and not rarely a huge whale starting up and spouting along-side. One 
fine morning a school of eight whales — good-sized fellows — passed close 
astern, remaining at the surface and tossing smoke-like jets of spray into 
the air for some time. 

Those who voyage in steamboats, while they gain in comforts suitable 
to the invalid, lose, on the other hand, much of the zest and flavor of sea- 
life. Not for them is the adventurous sensation imparted to one who 
roughs it in a sailing-vessel, and enjoys the variety and excitement which 
come with the trimming of sails and the management of a ship in a blow. 
In addition to this, the constant grumble of a steamer's machinery prevents 
a full appreciation of the solemn grandeur of the ocean, deadening the wash 
of the waves and the sublime chant of the wind in the rigging. For the 
voyager on the sailing-vessel is reserved that most weird of ocean sounds, 
the muttering and shrieking of Mother Carey's chickens — those wandering 
gypsies of the sea — floating over the water through the gloom of a dark 
night, like the eldrich laughter of lost spirits. Only on a sailing-vessel 
can one realize in any degree what the navigators of other days have en- 
dured, and imagine, as he tosses on the buffeting surges, that he is bound 
with the intrepid Vasco to discover the Indies, with Columbus seeks to 
evoke land from an unknown void, with Magalhaens is encircling the 



NEWFOUNDLAND. 



153 



globe, or with Raleigh or Sir Humphrey Gilbert is traversing the endless 
spaces of waves to discover El Dorado or quaff at the fountain of youth. 
On the thirteenth day out we sighted Cape Mary's, and stood all 
day along the southern coast of Newfoundland. Small fishing-schooners 
were numerous, noticeable for their black sails, dyed in oil and tar to 
make them durable, which entirely ruins the picturesque appearance usual 
to fishing craft, and aids to give a melancholy aspect to a shore that is 
already sufficiently barren and dismal. No other signs of life were visible 
from dawn until nightfall, except two or three fishing huts, and the light- 
houses on Cape Pine and Cape Race. Having a leading wind and no 
fog, we passed within half a mile of the latter, so famous for its ship- 




CAPE RAT. — TELEGRAPH HOUSE. 



wrecks. It is altogether a very cheerful spot, invested with the most 
agreeable associations. In Trepassy Bay, close at hand, for example, four 
ocean steamers have been lost, two within a year, with all on board ; and 
just beyond, scarce a mile north of the cape, is the graveyard on the cliff, 
where those are buried whose bodies were recovered by divers from the 
Anglo-Saxon, which struck in a fog, and went down at the foot of the 
beetling crags. The City of Philadelphia was wrecked not far from the 
same spot, as well as many other ill-fated vessels. 

Under press of sail we glided up the eastern coast of the island, which 
welcomed us with a succession of chilling squalls from the high land, 
which, with but one or two exceptions, is the formation of this part of 
Newfoundland. There was nothing inviting in the prospect. The rocky 
shore was like a huge wall falling sheer down most forbiddingly, seamed 
here and there by deep gulches, at the bottom of which two or three fish- 



154 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

ermen's huts might be discerned at long intervals. Midway between Cape 
Race and St. Johns we passed Cape Broyle, a forbidding headland, which 
is pierced by a cavity called the Spout. In easterly gales the rush of the 
sea forces the water up like a whale -spout, with a sound of thunder. 
When we rounded Cape Spear, whose light is 370 feet above the sea, the 
scene only became more grand and desolate. Before us, in the north, 
towered Sugar Loaf, like a stupendous bastion of some sea-fortress ; and 
as we sheered to the westward, the houses of St. Johns were visible as 
through a telescope at the end of a deep gulch or channel, scarce two ca- 
bles'-length in width, guarded on either hand by vast perpendicular cliffs. 
Signal Hill, on the north side of the entrance, soars to a height of 730 feet. 
A wheezing little tug came out and towed us through the channel into 
the snuggest pocket of a harbor in the world, and laid us along-side the 
wharf of the United States consul, the owner of the brig. 

St. Johns is a place of about 23,000 inhabitants. It straggles rather 
aimlessly along the water and up a slope, and is a cross between an Irish 
and an English seaport, and, except as it thereby represents an anomaly 
belonging rather to the Old than to the New World, offers nothing especi- 
ally worthy of note. The streets abound with dogs almost as if it were a 
Turkish city, generally of mongrel breeds, and burdened by a billet of 
wood hung to the neck, which renders them harmless. So numerous are 
dogs in the habited regions, and so mischievous to the flocks, that the 
laws of the island permit any one to shoot them at sight. But while other 
curs are so common, individuals of the genuine Newfoundland^ stock are 
scarce, and fetch from eighty to one hundred dollars. The breed is con- 
sequently guarded with great care, but seems, nevertheless, to be dying out. 
No dog that is not entirely jet-black, and has not the web-foot and dew- 
claw, is of the unmixed Newfoundland breed. 

The port of St. Johns is small, but, as before observed, well sheltered, 
and presents in summer-time a bustling appearance, being crowded with 
vessels of all nations. On entering the passage to the harbor a pungent 
"ancient fishy smell" informs the stranger what is the trade of the island. 
The energies of the islanders are devoted to the seal and cod fisheries. 
Early in March the seal-hunters, as the sealing-vessels are called, put to 
sea, cutting a way out through the ice if necessary, and strike directly 
for the ice-fields in the Straits of Belle Isle, where the seals congregate 
in great numbers. From fifty to seventy-five men go in a sealer, their 
bunks being ranged gallery-like along the hold. Half the proceeds go to 
the crew, half to the owner or planter. Thirty pounds are a fair average 
per man, thirty-six pounds being occasionally made in one trip ; and two 



NEWFOUNDLAND. 



155 



trips arc sometimes taken in the season, which lasts until May. The 
sealers are usually brigantines, and are somewhat wedge-shaped in the 




floor, so that when nipped by the ice, they are raised up instead of being 
crushed, slipping back into the water when the ice parts. Nevertheless, 
serious mishaps not rarely occur. Latterly a few screw-steamers, carry- 



156 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

ing 150 to 200 men. have been introduced; their crews share only a third 
of the receipts, but the increased rapidity of locomotion enables them to 
gain equal profits with the other crews. 

The best seals are those called whitecaps, harps, and hoods ; the lat- 
ter are so named because the males, when attacked, protect their faces by 
a cartilaginous visor, hard as India-rubber and impenetrable to the spear. 
Two men are requisite to kill these — one to divert the attention of the 
seal, while the other thrusts the lance through the throat. The men em- 
ployed in this business wear snow-spectacles, formed of blue glass, and 
protected on the sides by a fine net-work of wire, but even thus do not 
always escape a touch of snow-blindness, which is very common and pain- 
fully acute. 

The cod-fisheries of Newfoundland are even more profitable than seal- 
catching. Not only do her fishermen resort to the Banks, but all along 
the shore in her spacious bays they " till the farm that pays no fee," and 
the stages and "flakes," or platforms, for drying the fish are to be seen at 
every hamlet, crossing above the street like vine trellises in Italy, bearing 
a fruit less fragrant and graceful, but not less useful — codfish destined 
for the nourishment of good Catholics the world over, so long as Tuesdays 
and Fridays and Lent continue sacred to cod. It is interesting, when 
walking in the suburbs of St. Johns of a pleasant day, to see the women 
and boys, who cure the fish while the men are gone to sea, driving carts 
into town from Quidy Tidy, Empty Basket, and other little fishing ports, 
drawn by diminutive ponies and laden with salt fish ready to be shipped 
to distant lands. In other countries the peasantry flock to the shire-town 
with vegetables and fruits, the product of the gardens and vineyard. 
In Newfoundland it is codfish that the peasantry carry to the market- 
town. 

And yet, although the profits of the seal and cod-fisheries are large, 
and all on the island are in some way connected with what is virtually its 
sole business, poverty of the most abject character is the rule among all 
but a very few. This business is under the control of monopolists, and 
presents, by the way it is managed, an instructive example of what may 
result when the sense of mutual interest which should bind capital and 
labor is forgotten. Twelve men, most of whom reside in England, and 
carry on the business through agents in Newfoundland, furnish the capi- 
tal on which the fisheries are conducted ; consequently a large portion of 
the profits does not remain in the country, but is taken abroad to be dis- 
tributed elsewhere. But this is a minor evil compared with the iron 
clutch by which these capitalists hold every fisherman, as it were, by the 



NEWFOUNDLAND. 



157 



throat, scarcely permitting him to draw breath without their leave. The 
truck system, so powerfully rebuked in Parliament, and working disas- 
trously in some of the Pennsylvania mines, is in full force in Newfound- 
land. The capitalists, in return for the fish, pay the fishermen in kind ; 
that is, furnish them with all the supplies for supporting their families 
or carrying on their vocation, so managing as to oblige them to draw- 
in advance of the profits of the still ungathered crops of fish or seals— a 
draft on the future— and contrive that the account shall always so stand 
as to leave the poor fisherman, already rendered improvident by this prac- 
tice, always in debt, and thus always in the power of the capitalist. In 
addition to this, the capitalists or their agents meet in a club or Board 




CLEANING FISH. 



of Trade room at stated periods, and arrange among themselves the val- 
ues to be placed on the supplies furnished to the fishermen in their em- 
ploy, and from these prices, be they never so high, there is no appeal, 
nor, from the situation of affairs, is there any remedy to be provided 
against the repetition of the extortion. Gradually, but surely, has this 
tremendous tyranny gained strength on the island, and, so long as they 
remain under the present Government, shuts out all hope or power of 
improvement or progress in the condition of the islanders, or of the devel- 
opment of the mineral and agricultural resources which Newfoundland 
undoubtedly possesses in a remarkable degree. 

The island has nearly the superficial area of New England, and yet with 
a population of only a trifle over 150,000 ; and these, with the exception of 



158 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

St. Johns and Harbor Grace, are doled out along the singularly indented 
and irregular coast in little settlements of half a dozen cabins, widely sep- 
arated from each other; and even this meagre civilization is confined to 
the seaboard. Immediately on striking inland, one comes to the primeval 
forests of spruce and pine, which are about as destitute of traces of the su- 
preme Caucasian race as if Columbus had never been born. Half a cen- 
tury ago, one white man, with an Indian guide, crossed from the eastern 
to the western coast, and wrote a valuable account of his trip and of the 
interior wilds ; but no one has followed in his track until within five or 
six years since, and the deer still migrate unmolested from north to south 
with the change of the seasons. The few Micmac Indians remaining live 
chiefly along the northern shore. The time is not far distant when a rail- 
road will traverse the island from Cape Ray to Trinity Bay or St. Johns, 
connecting with a line of transatlantic steamers. From Cape Ray to Cape 
North, on Cape Breton Island, it is only forty miles, and travellers afraid 
of sea-sickness or pressed for time could thus reduce the distance by water 
between New York and Liverpool 1200 miles. 

The Roman Catholics have, in former time, been in excess of the Prot- 
estants of the island, and, as elsewhere, have characteristically secured the 
most commanding site in St. Johns for their cathedral, which is the first 
object that meets the eye on entering the port, its imposing Italian archi- 
tecture suggesting similar scenes in the Mediterranean, and its size and 
position leading a stranger to infer that opulence and numbers are mo- 
nopolized by the Romanists ; but the exterior is far more showy than the 
interior, which is cold and barn-like, finished off with crumbling stucco, 
and poorly ornamented with cheap copies after the Masters. 

The last census, however, showed that the Protestant element is gain- 
ing, and is now in a respectable majority, chiefly of the Church of Eng- 
land, but including a fair proportion of Scotch Presbyterians and Wes- 
leyans. The Anglican Bishop of Newfoundland presides over the most 
extraordinary diocese in Christendom. The see may almost literally be 
termed the sea; for while it is the largest in limits in the world, it is 
almost entirely composed of water, and the good prelate discharges his 
episcopal duties by much traversing of the boisterous Atlantic. New- 
foundland and the " vexed Bermoothes," with all the waters wide that roll 
between, are comprehended in this episcopate of many miles and few 
souls, unless we include soles that in the sea do dwell. A schooner-yacht 
is owned by his reverence, who in the summer visits and confirms his 
Northern flocks, a third of the coast of Newfoundland being thus circum- 
navigated by this ghostly yachtsman once a year. The fourth summer 



NEWFOUNDLAND. 159 

he rests from these maritime visitations, and the winters he devotes to 
the spiritual necessities of the Bermudas, who evidently receive more than 
their share of spiritual nourishment. A suffragan bishop resides at St. 
Johns, and missionaries, as they may well be called, are set over the fishing 
hamlets. They take charge of several each, and go from one to the other 
in fishing-boats, faithfully and patiently doling out the scant store of re- 
ligion to the poor islanders, and, as one of their number observed to me, 
" endeavoring to make good Christians of them, or at least good Church- 
men." 

It is supposed by many in the United States that Newfoundland be- 
longs to the New Dominion, while others, better informed as to that, but, 
as would seem, against the best interests of our country, which already 
embraces all the territory we can take care of for the present, have en- 
deavored to create a movement in favor of the annexation of that island 
to the . " States." For Newfoundland, at least, it would doubtless prove 
an advance on her condition as it is now, split by rival factions and 
under the control of monopolists, who repress the energies of the people 
and prevent the improvement of the vast mineral resources of the island. 
There are two political parties there, strongly divided on the question 
of confederation with the New Dominion, a measure which could only 
result to the ultimate advantage of the islanders. So it is properly re- 
garded by the best citizens, but they are unfortunately still in the minor- 
ity ; and such is the ignorance of the masses, that they are, of course, un- 
der the guidance of pestilent demagogues, those curses inevitably attend- 
ant on democracy in all ages, who, for the accomplishment of their selfish 
ends, give currency to the most amazing stories against Canada, so incred- 
ible that I refrain from repeating them here, yet not too incredible for 
the credulity of those for whose benefit they are manufactured. The 
elections are attended by much excitement and corruption, and the intel- 
ligence and integrity of the Legislature are not above suspicion. Lowell's 
" New Priest of Conception Bay " gives a vivid idea of certain phases of 
life in Newfoundland. The lower classes are generally a very rough set, 
especially on the southern coast, and, if we may trust the statements of 
some of the clergy, an infusion of practical Christianity into the morals of 
the people is one of the demands of the island. 

There is some attempt at popular education on the part of the Gov- 
ernment, but, judging from the intelligence of the popular mind, "wisdom 
will not die with the Newfoundlanders. There is a reading-room at St. 
Johns, for the free use of which I here tender my grateful acknowledg- 
ments; but communication with the outside world is at best but scanty. 



160 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

The United States press is represented in the book-stores by the most 
vulgar of the New York weeklies, which may account for the not unrea- 
sonable opinion expressed to me by a usually well-informed clergyman, 
that he supposed " the United States was governed entirely by mob law." 
The papers of St. Johns are of a contemptible character; the telegraphic 
news they contain is much garbled, and, what seems extraordinary, con- 
sidering the near vicinity of Heart's Content — the terminus of the cable — 
is obtained by way of Boston and Halifax, several days after date ! Mail 
communication is maintained with Halifax, and the rest of the world 
thereby, once or twice monthly by steam-packet. Considering how rarely 
the mails have to be made up and distributed, the post-office might almost 
seem a sinecure, and yet it will excite a smile to learn that the postal 
officials have been known to complain of overwork ! 

After all, I found it pleasant to be quiet a while, and free from the 
turmoil and confusion, the constant hurry of events, the swift-recurring 
rush of telegrams, the fever of life in the nineteenth century, and to live 
over a bit of " still life," somewhat as it was in some retired English sea- 
faring town seventy years ago. And while one can hardly consider New- 
foundland, with its pale sunlight and sere plains, solitary forests and in- 
frequent mails, altogether the place to live in, yet it is well worth a visit. 
Its aboriginal scenery, unexplored wastes, quaint capital, curious fishing- 
ports, frowning coast, legendary lore, hospitable folk, and blooming lassies 
with eyes of brimming blue, cheeks mantling with the roses of health, 
plump, trim figures, and elastic step, and its unusual fishing and hunting 
advantages for sportsmen, present a variety of attractions adapted to in- 
terest and please the stranger, and store his memory with delightful recol- 
lections. 



THE BERMUDAS 



161 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE BERMUDAS. 



SEVEN hundred and seventy miles south-east from New York, in the 
latitude of Charleston, and the other side of the Gulf Stream, to 
which we are indebted for a variety of ill-natured weather, lies the cele- 
brated cluster of islets called the Bermudas. Having been long desirous 
of seeing them, I was duly exultant when I at last held in my hand the 
ticket of the " Quebec and Gulf Ports Steamship Company," entitling 
me to a berth in the steamship Canima. We left the wharf on a Thurs- 
day, at 3 p.m., and made the land on Monday morning at 3 a.m. Steer- 
ing around the southern side of the islands, we entered the narrow chan- 
nel north of St. George's, and, passing inside of the reefs, meandered among 
islets and hidden shelves until we 
came to Hamilton, by one of the 
most tortuous and difficult channels 
ever attempted by a vessel. 

Once within the basin forming 
the port of Hamilton, we found our- 




1G2 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



selves in a lovely, landlocked lake, girt with a diadem of miniature isles, 
and the white-roofed and latticed cottages and palms of the little capital 
straggling dreamily to the water's edge at the bottom of a fairy-like bay. 
Dropping an anchor and mooring to it, the Cani?na.wns gradually warped 
to some forty feet from the quay, which she could not reach on account 
of a shallow, that might be dredged out with a moderate sum and a tri- 
fling amount of enterprise. The great events in life at Hamilton, aside 
from the yacht-races and paper-hunts, are the arrivals and departures of 

the New York packet. Accordingly, 
the pier was thronged with people, black 
and white, showing on the glaring, 
calcareous soil like pawns huddled in 
disorder on a chess-board. There they 
stood, aristocrats and plebeians, with a 
sprinkling of redcoats and jolly men- 
of-war's-men, chattering and chaffing, 
while we on board also leaned expect- 
ant on the bulwarks, wondering how 
we were to get on shore. To land in 
boats when we were but a dozen yards 
off seemed preposterous ; but no other 
visible means of getting to land with 
dry feet seemed to offer. A bustle in the crowd soon indicated a solu- 
tion of the problem. Ropes flung from the ship were caught on shore 
and made fast to the outer end of long timbers, which were now pushed 
out into space by ebony 'longshoremen, until by means of the ropes the 
oscillating ends were drawn on board, thus causing the timbers to rest 
one end on shore, the other on board. Immediately a swarm of shining 
blacks, grinning and yelling, bestrode these beams, holding crossbars, which 
they lashed to the underside of the timbers. It was a novel sight, the 
double row of lithe, half-clad darkies, clinging with bare feet to the logs 
fifteen feet above the water. When the frame had been properly lashed 
together, planks were laid over it, and thus we passed from deck to land. 
A crane, by which a bridge could be lowered, or such a bridge on wheels 
as we use in New York, would be perfectly feasible, and perhaps less cost- 
ly in the end; but, were any such innovation to be introduced, a riot 
might result, to which the emeute excited by Demetrius the coppersmith 
would be trifling, the negroes who put up and take down this rude bridge 
bawling with " damnable iteration," " This our craft is in danger to be 
set at naught !"' 




THE BERMUDAS. 



1 63 



I never witnessed a 
more thoroughly laughable 
and ridiculous incident than 
a palaver between a half- 
breed and a full-blooded 
Congo on Hamilton Quay, 
about a cur which the lat- 
ter had pushed into the wa- 
ter on a certain steamer- 
day. Such grandiloquent 
language, perpetually mis- 
pronounced, such mock 
dignity and high sense of 
personal honor, such ab- 
surd gestures and rolling 
of the eyes, such barbaric 
eloquence about nothing, 
would bring tears of laugh- 
ter to the eyes of the Car- 
diff Giant. 

The Bermudas received 
their name from Juan Ber- 
mudez, who, when driving 
past in a gale of wind, first 
sighted them in 1503 ; but 
no attempt to profit by the 
discovery seems to have 
been made until 1552, when 
Philip II. concluded to as- 
sume formal possession of 
the group, and Ferdinand 
Camelo sailed for Bermu- 
da with a band of colo- 
nists. A rock bearing the 
initials of Camelo, the date 
of landing, and a cross, still 
stands near the centre of 
the island. No other relics 
of this Latin colony exist ; 
but Henry May, an English 




pmyfj'JR.;'vi 



1 : r ? , ■!"..-; 







164 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

seaman, wrecked there in 1593, relates that he found an abundance of 
wild-hogs, a relic of this colony, which have long since been extermi- 
nated. In 1009, Sir George Somers was on the voyage to Virginia, and 
was wrecked on the Bermudas, where he died in 1611, and the group is 
sometimes called after him. At some earlier period, the ubiquitous Cap- 
tain John Smith, who turns up in all the American colonies at intervals, 
landed at the Bermudas, and made some startling statements regarding 
the aboriginal spiders he found there. In the words of an old chronicler : 
" They could nOt find by any observations that they [the spiders] were at 
all pernicious; yet they are of a very large size, but withal beautifully 
colored, and look as if they were adorned with pearl and gold. Their 
webs are in color and substance a perfect raw silk, and so strongly woven 
that, running from tree to tree, like so many snares, small birds are some- 
times caught in them. This Captain Smith reports, upon whose credit 
as great an improbability as this may be ventured to be related." No 
such magnificent spiders now inhabit Bermuda, and we must say Captain 
Smith's testimony on the subject is hardly sufficient to satisfy the scepti- 
cism of this faithless and unbelieving generation. But some large-sized, 
although harmless, spiders are there still, which have an uncivil habit of 
entering one's bedroom without leave and dropping down on the pillow 
from the ceiling after the light has been blown out for the night. 

Representative government was organized in Bermuda in 1620, the 
year the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. As the first permanent settlers 
of the islands were Puritans, impelled thither in search of an asylum for 
religious freedom, the coincidence is rather remarkable, and worthy of 
more attention than it has received from the historians. These settlers 
were for a while great sufferers from a memorable plague of rats as 
numerous as the swarm which devoured Bishop Hatto on the Rhine. 
They were everywhere, and destroyed everything, even swimming from 
one island to another. Cats and dogs were of little use in combating the 
vermin, which finally disappeared almost as mysteriously as they had come. 
The cats naturally began to pine after that, and they do not seem to have 
got over it yet, for a more woe-begone, rough-haired, angular, crop-eared, 
and bob-tailed set of quadrupeds than these felines is not to be found out 
of Bermuda. 

But, while having nominally a government of their own, with a minia- 
ture legislature chosen from a few property-holders out of a total popula- 
tion of 12,000, the Bermudas are in reality a naval station of Great Britain, 
under the charge of a military governor appointed by the crown. A gar- 
rison of two regiments is permanently settled there, and the most advan- 



THE BERMUDAS. 



1G5 



tageons points bristle with fortifications. On Ireland Island an artificial 
port has been created by a breakwater, and an extensive arsenal exists for 
repairing ships-of-war. There is to be seen the famous floating-dock, 
towed from England in 1869. It is 381 feet in length over all. 

The reputation of Bermuda is owing largely to the circumstance that 
no similar group of islands has been visited and sung by so many writers 
of note. Influenced, perhaps, by the narratives of Captain Smith and 
Henry May, Shakspeare laid the scene of "The Tempest" on a desert 
island, and gave a birthplace to Ariel in the " still vexed Bermoothes." 




FLOATING-DOCK. 



Later, Edmund Waller came to Bermuda with the Earl of Warwick, in 
order to get over his disappointment regarding the Lady Dorothy Sidney. 
He wrote a spirited poem, entitled " The Battle of the Summer Islands," 
describing: a combat between the Bermudians and certain whales. Amidst 



ICG 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 




considerable bom- 
bast there are a 
few good lines in 
the poem ; but 
the poet gave rein 
to his imagina- 
tion, and pictured 
scenes whose like 
can only be found 
amidst the rank 
of trop- 



growth 
ical 



TRINITX CHURCH, HAMILTON. 



vegetation. 
Andrew Marvell, the well - known 
secretary of Oliver Cromwell, has 
also done his share to bring Ber- 
muda into prominence by his ex- 
quisite lines, " The Emigrants in 
Bermudas," which show that the 
Puritans were able to compose ad- 
mirable poetry as well as give "apostolic blows and knocks." In this 
century, Tom Moore, the jolly bard who translated Anacreon, drifted 
over to these isles with a commission to the Vice-admiralty Court in his 
pocket. There was nothing Puritanic about Moore. As soon as he 
landed, he went to making love and weaving amatory couplets, which 
were probably no more sincere than most of his verses; for, his poetry 
to the contrary notwithstanding, he records in his prose that he found 
the ladies more susceptible than beautiful, while the husbands also came 
in for a share of unfavorable criticism. He adds, " The philosopher who 
held that in the next life men are transformed into mules and women 
into turtles might see this very nearly accomplished at Bermuda." The 
house where Moore lived, the dripping cavern he frequented, and the 
ragged calabash-tree under which he composed his verses, continue to be 
objects of rational curiosity. 

Without making comparisons, which are said on good authority to be 
odious, it may be truthfully affirmed that the scenery of Bermuda, although 
never overcoming one with enthusiasm, is, however, always pleasing, and, 
like a Choice work of art or a quiet but thoughtful piece of music, has 
the inestimable quality of improving on acquaintance. Its charms are so 
subtile that, before one is aware, it has stolen an enduring place in one's 
affections. I have seen islands far more striking and magnificent, which 



THE BERMUDAS. 



167 



have gained scarcely so strong a hold upon my memory, or seemed to 
invite the stranger to return with such singular magnetism. The pome- 
granate grows abundantly, and its brilliant green foliage, starred with 
the flame-like splendor of scarlet blossoms, forms one of the most char- 
acteristic features in a Bermuda landscape. The same may be said of 
the fiddle-tree and the geranium ; while the oleander, growing in lofty 
groves, and festooned with wonderful masses of crimson-and-white flow- 
ers, often imparts regal beauty to the rural roadside. Variety is also 
given to the flora by the interweaving of the tamarind, the red cedar, the 
century-plant, the Surinam cherry, the grape-fruit, the banana, and, wav- 
ing majestically over all, the queenly palm, a bronze-like shaft lithely 
swaying in the sea-wind and crowned by an undulating crest of emerald 
plumes. The mangrove is abundant in the coral coves, its snake-like 







ft 



MOOKE'S CALABASII-TKEE. 



branches twisted together most inextricably over the water, and forming 
green coves, where the dreamer may suppose sea-fairies dwell, if he be so 
minded. 

The scientist would probably tell us that there are no such things as 
fairies, that this scenery and these trees have higher uses than to please, 



16S 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



and would direct us rather to turn to a serious consideration of the inter- 
esting geological phenomena of the islands ; and, as he has got us by the 




button-hole, and, like the Ancient Mariner, is bound to repeat his story, we 
must listen a few minutes while he tells us that the soil is very thin, and 
of a red color ; that it is already overworked, and constantly demands fer- 
tilizers ; and that it is but a sparse stratum, deposited in the course of long 
ages on a limestone basis. The most noteworthy characteristic of the Ber- 
mudas, in the opinion of the aforesaid scientist, is their formation. Orig- 
inally they were nothing but reefs of coral. Gradually the central portions 
arose above the sea, and then the surf, beating on the outer coral ledges, 
wore them into sand, which was washed up on the higher parts. Exposure 
to the weather of an ocean celebrated for the inhospitable treatment it 
extends to those who court its acquaintance had a hardening tendency, 
such as the human character undergoes when lashed by oft-repeated, long- 
continued adversity ; and these heaps of loose sand became indurated into 
limestone. Nor is the process yet complete; it is still going on along the 
southern coast, where limestone in the various stages of formation may 
be seen, from hard rock to softer masses like cheese, and mere shifting 
hills composed of the disintegrated coral washed up by the latest storm. 



THE BERMUDAS. 



169 



These islets number one hundred, with a large flock of nameless rocks. 
The main group forms a chain shaped like a fish-hook, from St. George's 
Island to Ireland Island, and connected by causeways. On the northern 
side they are hedged in by a remarkable coralline reef extending in a 
semicircle completely across, subtending the arc of the bay lying between 
these two islands, a distance of twenty-five miles. It is worthy of remark 
that the Bermudas are in the highest latitude in which coral insects build 
in the form of rocks. In heavy weather this immense barrier is cruelly 
terrible, beaten by an unbroken mass of raging breakers. As there is but 
one passage by which it can be entered, it serves as an impenetrable che- 




COTTAGE AND GARDEN IN HAMILTON. 



val-de-frise against all ships of the enemy. There is a fine light-house on 
Gibbs Hill, 3G2 feet above the sea, and visible twenty-five miles. They 
need another one, and came to that conclusion a long time ago. But as 



170 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



time is the cheapest thing going in a place like Bermuda, it is well to em- 
ploy a good supply of it in everything that is undertaken there. It costs 




A STREET SCENE IN HAMILTON — THE WHARF. 



nothing, while hurry, money, labor — these things cost; and therefore this 
additional light-house will not be erected, probably, before the year 1900. 

The islands, in a direct line, are but fifteen miles in length, and never 
over two miles broad, and generally very much narrower, and excessively 
cut up with creeks and bays ; and yet they give an impression of a much 
larger area — to such a degree as almost to come within the definition of 
an illusion. The surface, nowhere over 250 feet high, is always undulat- 
ing ; and thus one will often find himself in a little sylvan hollow sur- 
rounded by hills so steep as to give the impression of considerable eleva- 
tion : they are clothed with cedar groves. On the intervening meadow- 
lands lies perchance a little pool surrounded by attractive farm-houses and 
gardens, and a church-spire. One could easily imagine himself in some 
New England vale hundreds of miles from the sea, when a turn in the 
road reveals the ocean only a few score yards away; and the illusion is 
heightened by the numerous admirable roads running in every direction. 
A penal settlement existed until recently in Bermuda, and the convicts 
were employed to hew out of the rock 120 miles of carriage-roads. The 



THE BERMUDAS. 



171 



question is, " If these men had not sinned, would these roads have been 
constructed; and what would the islands be without these roads?" "What- 
ever is, is right," says Pope. Not a bit of it ! But in Bermuda let us 
throw casuistry and physic alike to the dogs. 

Hamilton is a charming little town, doing its best to emulate other 
English colonies by maintaining an insular aristocracy, and feels as im- 
portant as if it had twelve hundred thousand instead of twelve hundred 
souls. Better than all, there is a poetic element, a narcotic property, in 
the air which invests it, that makes one forget that New York is so near 
at hand, struggling under the burdens of the nineteenth century. The 
pretty cottages in the neighborhood, embowered in flowers, are very invit- 
ing, and seem to offer a nearly perfect combination of rural and domestic 
attractions. 

Of St. George's I cannot speak so favorably. It seems to present 
the decay without the picturesqueness, the decrepitude without the re- 
spectability of old age, and the neighboring shores are less inviting. On 
St. David's Island, in the port, people are still found who have never been 




A STREET SCENE IN ST. GEOKUE : 



off that little islet, and have never seen a horse except in a picture ! Don- 
keys they have seen, for the good reason that dwarf donkeys are found 



172 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



everywhere in Bermuda, trotting in front of miniature carts. St. George's 
was a noted rendezvous for blockade-runners during our civil war, and 
the depression into which it has fallen is proportioned to the feverish pros- 




T1IE DEVIL'S HOLE. 



perity of that period. It may be added here that the oft-repeated story 
of the enterprising hero who made several trips from Charleston to Ber- 
muda, carrying a ton of cotton across each voyage in an open boat, has 
no foundation in fact. 

The two pleasantest spots in Bermuda are Harrington Sound and 
Fairy-land. The former is a salt-water lake, or estuary, surrounded by 
cavernous shores, and over its delicate green water hovers the poetic pin- 
tail, reflecting on its downy white breast the emerald tint of the sea. The 
Walsingham and Joyce caves in the vicinity are well worth visiting, al- 
though the beautiful pendant stalactites hanging from the Gothic vaults 
are gradually falling before the blows of visitors, and blackened by the 
smoke of the bushes burned to light up the gloom of the interior. The 
Devil's Hole is also a spot where, for an extravagant fee, one may have 
his curiosity relieved by looking into a pit filled with sea-water through 
a subterranean channel. It is surrounded by a high stone wall, carefully 
protected by a vast quantity of broken glass, although it is difficult to 



THE BERMUDAS. 



173 



imagine any one so infatuated by curiosity as to try to scale a high wall 
in order to look into a pool. But there is no glass wasted in Bermuda. 
The walls are everywhere so plentifully guarded by a frightfully jagged 
edge of broken bottles as to lead the stranger to think it must be a very 
insecure place to live in. It must be admitted that the color of the water 
at the Devil's Hole is of the most exquisite cobalt hue, shading off into 
emerald and brown in the shadows, and the azure angel-fish it contains 
are equally beautiful. 

Fairy-land is topographically the most attractive spot in Bermuda, and 
should therefore be visited last. Art has done little for it, and Nature a 
great deal. The main island is here cut up most marvellously into cove 
and bay, isthmus and peninsula, like the bits of a puzzle-map, and the 
coves are in turn studded with green islets, reposing in magical beauty on 
a summer sea. I know of no country villa more admirably situated than 
the residence of Mrs. Stowe, who courteously allows visitors to walk over 
her grounds. Near Fairy-land is Spanish Point, a picturesque rock, with 
a very fine bit of marine foreground, complete and lovely of its kind ; and 
beyond this point is a sea-cave reserved as a bathing-house for the ladies 
of the governor's family. It seems hollowed out on purpose for Amphi- 
trite and her Nereids. 




CAVES ON THE COAST. 



The admirable facilities for boating at Bermuda naturally cause great 
interest in yachting. There is a yacht-club, and the Bermuda yachts have 



174 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



more than a local reputation. The boats are, however, built on principles 
that have been exploded by the latest practice. They are a curious com- 
bination of some of the opposite qualities of English and American yachts 




RAVINE ON SOUTH SHORE, BERMUDA. 



at the time of the famous international race in 1851. They have great 
beam, but it is forward of the centre ; and great draught, but it is aft ; 
and the keel runs up toward the stem. At the same time they depend 
altogether upon ballast for stability, and are so heavily sparred that they 
have to be loaded down with a great weight. The mast is also set so far 
in the eyes, and has such a rake, that it buries the bow in running, and 
even when close-hauled, thus checking the speed. The only quality in 
which they seem to me to excel is in going to windward. It is affirmed 
that some of them can look up within three points and a half of the wind ; 
but our best sloop-yachts can do the same thing. They are built entirely 
of red cedar, scraped and varnished, and certainly look very coquettish 
and saucy when under press of canvas. The main-sail is triangular, and 
boats in racing-trim set masts twice the length of the deck, and carry bow- 
sprits little short of the length of the keel. They have an absurd rule in 
racing that the main-sail shall be laced to the mast, and, blow high or 
blow low, that sail shall not be reduced. As many craft actually go bet- 
ter sometimes in a sea by a judicious reef or two, even if they can bear 
more canvas, this system makes racing in Bermuda chiefly a question of 



THE BERMUDAS. 



175 



foolhardiness, rather than of judgment founded on a knowledge of what 
each yacht can do under given circumstances. 

I saw a race in the Great Sound. It had been announced for a long 
time. The two semiannual yacht-races are great events, and my expecta- 
tions were proportionately elevated, especially as the Bermuda Yacht Club 
is under the distinguished patronage of his Royal Highness the Duke of 
Edinburgh, and the vice patronage of the governor, four major-generals, 
two admirals, and a vice-admiral. It seemed, therefore, rather a coming 
down to find that, although every craft that could float was on hand, and 
almost every one in the town turned out to see the sport and picnic on the 
islands, there was to be nothing in the race measuring over ten tons, and 
only seven entries for the first and second races, while only five yachts 
actually competed, and two of these were but sixteen-feet length of keel. 
As usual, also, in Bermuda, there was so little punctuality shown in getting 
on the ground, or rather on the water, selected for the race, although there 
was a fresh and favorable breeze, that the second race had to be postponed. 




The quay of Hamilton looked very lively as party after part}' came 
down to the water, followed by negro attendants bearing baskets of pro- 
visions and suspicious-looking bottles, to embark in the jaunty boats wait- 



176 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

ing impatiently, with streamers flying and main-sails set, chafing like spir- 
ited steeds. One by one the boats received their live freight, the jibs were 
hoisted, and heeling over to a spanking breeze out of the west, they shot 
down the bay, their swelling sails gleaming snow-like on the purple sea as 
they threaded the tortuous channels among the islands, like a long proces- 
sion of swans. The racing yachts really looked like things of life, newly 
scraped and varnished, spreading a cloud of new canvas, and burying their 
lee-rails as they started off with a bone in the mouth. They were, howev- 
er, not sailed by the owners, but by negro skippers and crews, the owners 
looking on from other boats, which seemed to me very much like dancing 
in the Orient, the dancers being professionals hired for the occasion, while 
the host and his guests look on, instead of dancing themselves. After the 
racers had started, all the other boats landed their parties on the neighbor- 
ing islands to dine. A more lovely day or a more charming scene could 
hardly be imagined. The sea-wind inspirited one like an elixir, and, as 
we sat under the trees taking our luncheon, listening to the musical play 
of the surf on the beach, and the breeze in the leaves overhead, and gaz- 
ing on the reach of lovely azure sea beyond, and the sails dotting the dis- 
tance, we did not in the least envy the lotos-eaters. When the racers were 
on the home-stretch to the stake-boat, every one turned out again to see 
them come in. The scene, as they gibed and rounded the goal, was very 
exciting ; for there was a stiff breeze, the shifting ballast had to be carried 
over very rapidly, and the danger of capsizing with such a press of canvas 
was very considerable. The third yacht yielded to the sudden pressure, 
as she took the wind on the starboard quarter, and gracefully but rapidly 
lurching, filled and went down like lead, with six men on board. But one 
by one they bobbed up again like burnt corks, and, grappling with other 
boats, were soon out of danger of waves and sharks. 

Many varieties of birds frequent the Bermudas, generally such as are 
found in our woods — the cat-bird, the robin, the bluebird, the scarlet taua- 
ger, and the brown thrush. The beautiful Virginia cardinal-bird is also 
very common. The variety and number of singing-birds is indeed one of 
the most pleasing characteristics of the island. But game-birds, or game 
of any sort, are too scarce for mention. The sport -loving Englishman 
finds this a hardship which he overcomes by artificial means. The reader 
may remember Hughes's description of the game of hare-and-hounds in 
his "School-days at Rugby." Something of this sort is the fashion in Ber- 
muda, and is called a " paper-hunt." Hurdles, intended to be very formi- 
dable, are laid here and there in the otherwise smooth fields and slopes, and 
men are sent in advance to scatter a trail of bits of paper. The ladies and 



THE BERMUDAS. 



177 



gentlemen privileged to belong to what may be called the Bermuda Hunt 
assemble at a concerted rendezvous, mounted on steeds which are certainly 
Tiot excelling in the points of a thorough-bred, and then, hurry-skurry over 
hurdles and hedges, dash the hunters, following the paper trail, until they 
all finally meet at a selected spot, where a grand banquet is served to fin- 
ish up the bloodless sport. Miss Lefroy, the daughter of the governor, is 
the Di Vernon of Bermuda. 

The question of meat and drink is one which absorbs even more at- 
tention at the islands than it does elsewhere. People must have liquids; 




INDIA- HI' IIBEK-TKEE. 



but, as there are neither streams, wells, nor springs there, fresh water must 
be caught from the skies ; and every roof in Bermuda is, therefore, en- 
listed into the service by being tiled with limestone and whitewashed, and 
the rain-water runs from them into ample cisterns. The houses are con- 
structed of the soft limestone of the islands, which can be readily cut into 
blocks with a handsaw when first quarried, but hardens after a few weeks 
of exposure to the air. Beer is largely imported from England, and once 
a serious calamity seemed to overhang the devoted islands, when long 
head-winds kept back a cargo of malt liquors. Daily, with long faces, the 

12 



ITS THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

care-worn Bermudians came down to the quay to inquire anxiously if the 
Sarah Jane had arrived yet. A while since, a universal remedy at the 
islands for all the ills that flesh is heir to was brandy and salt; but it is 
more than suspected that the salt too often came out of the sugar-bowl. 

Bermuda potatoes have a wide reputation with us ; but if the visitor 
to Bermuda wishes to eat them there, he must carry a barrel of them with 
him from New York, for they are all exported to that city and Phila- 
delphia, and sold at high prices as early potatoes, while others are im- 
ported from New York at a lower price. Meat is also imported from our 
continent, and when the transport loaded with beeves arrives it is a novel 
sight to see her land them. Mooring opposite the cattle-yards some lit- 
tle distance from the shore, an inclined plank-way is placed on the deck 
reaching to the bulwarks. One by one the oxen are let out from the stalls 
on deck, or hoisted from the hold, and permitted to walk up this inclined 
plank. With immense satisfaction that gives almost a human expression to 
the bovine eye, the poor animal looks out once more on green fields, with 
curiosity toned by placid content, when suddenly a rope is tightened be- 
hind him so violently that, nolens volens, and without the slightest chance 
of resistance, he is hurled into the sea. When he comes up at last, almost 
suffocated with the salt-water he has swallowed, he is towed on shore by 
two men in a skiff. Some would call it an entertaining spectacle to see 
a couple of hundred oxen treated in this way. It would be very amusing 
if we could only be sure that they do not suffer, or that they are destined 
to some compensation for the torture which they endure in this world, 
under the operation of the inscrutable laws of the infinite wisdom. 

I returned to New York in the Bermuda steamer. We encountered 
very heavy weather, and one morning four men were washed off the main- 
boom when reeling the main-sail. Almost by a miracle they all contrived 
to grasp hold of some rope or spar, and were saved. The steamer was 
loaded with tomatoes and onions ; and as the skylights and companion- 
way had to be tightly closed, the smell of the onions became almost over- 
powering, and it was therefore with unwonted relief that I hailed the sight 
of land. 



BELLEISLE-EN-MER 



179 



CHAPTER IX. 



BELLEISLE-EN-MER. 



BELLEISLE-EN-MER is so called, probably, in order to distinguish 
it from a village in the interior of Brittany, which, for some strange 
reason, is called Belleisle-en-Terre. Very few besides Frenchmen have 
heard of this little island, and fewer still know much about it, which is 
sufficient cause for giving a chapter to it here. It is an islet about ten 
miles long, off the coast of Brittany, 
and my attention was drawn to it 
when I was at Auray. Every one 
said to me that I ought by all means 
to visit Belleisle, and as this advice 
tallied exactly with my passion for 
islands, it required only about five 
minutes' deliberation to decide to go 
there. 

A miniature steamer of forty tons 
plies daily between Auray and Belle- 
isle, winds and weather permitting, 
which is a very important proviso 
on that bleak, rock-bound, fog-hid- 
den, and tempestuous coast, and, con- 
sidering the extreme violence of the 
sea sometimes, especially in the win- 
ter season, which was exactly the 
time when I took my trip. It was 
a gray, sad morning as the boat left 
the pier at Auray, which is surrounded by groups of exceedingly pictu- 
resque old buildings. We glided down the Auray River into the 'Sea of 
Morbihan, a large landlocked bay, which receives the broad estuaries of 
Auray and Vannes, and is studded with barren, but picturesque and leg- 
endary isles. The scenery on the river-banks pleased me more than any 




FISH-WOMEN OF THE MORBIHAN. 



180 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



landscape I saw in Brittany. Oak woods, mossy and venerable, and un- 
touched by the axe, gave- a bit of antique forest-land quite unusual in 
Northern France. It was entertaining to see the fishing and market boats 
rowed and sailed by women, rough, stout, and rosy, sometimes a little 
touched with liquor, and proportionately jolly, and with only one man at 
most on board. 

I may mention here that throughout Brittany, owing to the conscrip- 
tion, the exodus of young men to Paris, or other causes, the women 
may be seen in the majority everywhere, and in almost all departments 
of trade. What we call women's rights have been practically adopted 
in France for centuries, the constant wars having drained the supply of 
men. The result has been not so much what it is claimed it would be 




-J 






cssar's table, or table op the merchants, locmariaquer. 






if women should obtain what some are pleased to call their rights — that 
is, the general refinement and improvement of society — but rather the re- 
verse. I do not blame women for having to labor in the fields, or fishing 
and digging for oysters, or pursuing any honest means for gaining a live- 
lihoocty; but I always feel sorry for them when they are forced to adopt 
vocations purely masculine, which destroy the natural refinement and 
beauty that are the peculiar traits of womanhood. 

We passed by Locmariaquer, where some of the most stupendous 
remains of the Druids still exist, remarkable even in a country which 
abounds with them like Brittany. One of the largest of these is a dol- 
men called Csesar's Table, or Dol-ar-Marc'hadourien, which means the 
Table of the Merchants in Celtic. After passing out of the Sea of Mor- 
bihan, we encountered a stiff sou'-west wind, but for some distance were 
protected by the long, narrow peninsular spit called Quiberon, and the 



BELLEISLE-EN-MER. 1S1 

adjoining islets of Houat and Iledic. Quiboron extends into the Atlantic: 
like a breakwater, and is exposed to the full brunt of all the gales which 
beset that melancholy coast. It has acquired a terrible celebrity for the 
events of which it was the scene during the French Revolution. There, 
June 27th, 1795, an English fleet landed a corps of emigres composed of 
the best blood of France, spared thus far by the guillotine. They were 
commanded by D'Hervilly, and latterly by Sombreuil, who was the brother 
of her who quaffed a goblet of human blood during the massacre of the 
2d of September in order to save her father's life. Sombreuil arrived 
with re-enforcements toward the close of the ill-fated expedition, in season 
to take command, and sacrifice his life for a cause and an army already 
doomed. The choua?is, or peasantry, flocked to the royal standard, and a 
force of ten or twelve thousand men was soon collected, which would have 
swelled to a large army but for the incompetency of D'Hervilly. Much 
precious time was wasted, and when the royalists were at last ready to 
move, Hoche, the ablest general of the Revolution, appeared, and, by a 
series of masterly movements, hemmed in the invading army, and forced 
them back on Quiberon, where they were caught as in a trap. The fail- 
ure of concerted movements, caused partially by lack of confidence in the 
royalist general, resulted in the defeat of the emigres near Fort Penthievre, 
after heroic efforts. Treachery did the rest. Fort Penthievre, the key 
to Quiberon, was given up by traitors. A heavy gale was blowing when 
Hoche made the final attack, which drove the ill-fated royalists to the 
extremity of the peninsula, and while some were able to escape to the 
English fleet, many perished, dashed against the rocks, in that fearful 
night when nature seemed to combine with man to increase the horrors 
of fratricidal war. Nothing was left but to surrender or fight to the 
last man. Sombreuil, who was in command after the fall of D'Hervilly 
and the dastardly flight of Puisaye, the next in command, advanced be- 
yond the lines and held a parley with-Hoche. A surrender was agreed 
upon. 

Tallien, the member of the Assembly who had been detailed by the 
Government to be present to give his sanction to the proceedings at the 
expected surrender, then returned to Paris with General Hoche, after 
having given his acquiescence to counsels of mercy. But there the cour- 
age of both these men gave way in face of rumors concerning their luke- 
•warmness or infidelity to the cause. With a perfidy which is but partially 
palliated by the state of affairs, when to be suspected was to be condemned, 
they both abandoned the prisoners of Quiberon to the tender mercies of 
the Jacobins, Tallien even descending so low as to suppress an appeal 



182 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



he had made in favor of mercy, and to urge the execution of the whole 
number. The Assembly sent orders that all over sixteen years of age 
should be shot. The executions were superintended by a tiger named 
Lamoine, and took place simultaneously at Vannes, Auray, and Quiberon. 
Every day at noon, for thirty days, the unfortunate captives were taken out 
by thirties and by forties, ranged facing a deep trench, and shot, and as 
they fell in the trench they were left, whether alive or dead, and the dogs 
were allowed to pick their bones. Many atrocities accompanied these 
wdiolesale executions. The number murdered is not certainly known, but 
it was not less than three thousand, and by some it has been placed much 
higher. 

On getting abreast of the Teignouse Light, in the channel between the 
rocks on which it is perched, and the reefs which skirt the little islands 




LE PALAIS, BELLEISLE. 



of Houat and Hedic, we encountered a most tremendous and irregular 
sea, for which this spot is noted when the tide, undertow, and sea-waves 
conflict with each other. A very stiff breeze was blowing, and the little 
steamer, although buoyant, buried herself in a way astonishing to behold. 
They made sail on her as soon as possible to keep her steady, and stood 
away to the eastward, taking the sea more abeam, until we got under the 
lee of Belleisle, when we came to on our course, and arrived at Le Pa- 
lais, the chief place, toward night. I stepped ashore with the proud con- 
sciousness of being, so far as I could learn, the first American traveller 
who ever landed on the island. 

When I reached the Hotel de France, I was charmed to find a neat, 
cheerful hostel, and that an excellent dinner was on the point of being 



BELLEISLE-EN-MER. 183 

served. The landlord, a man of fair average intelligence, but ignorant, 
like most Frenchmen, of any other country besides his own, gave me a 
cordial reception, and said to me, 

"Are you an Englishman ?" 

" No," I replied, " I am an American." 

"Ah, indeed! And how did you come from America? Did you 
come by rail ?" 

" No, the railroad is not yet built," I answered ; " so I had to come by 
steamer." 

He did not seem at all abashed by my reply, feeling probably, like 
many of his countrymen, that what he did not know was not worth know- 
ing ; in fact, he did not seem at all aware what an absurd question he had 
asked. Nor was I surprised that he should ask it, as it is the most com- 
mon thing in the world to find astonishing ignorance among Europeans 
regarding America, even on the part of educated people. 

Le Palais is situated on a long, narrow port, protected by a mole, and 
inaccessible at half tide ; but the inner port is ahvays provided by flood- 
gates with water for vessels of moderate size. The entrance and the 
whole land side of the town are admirably fortified by massive walls and 
bastions, designed by Vauban. Ships of any size can ride in the roads 
in the heaviest weather. Le Palais is entirely a modern town, having 
been built chiefly during or since the time of Louis XIII. But the island 
has a history dating back to the earliest periods. It was originally cov- 
ered with forests, and governed by the Druids, who left important monu- 
ments, most of which have been destroyed. At one time Belleisle was 
an appanage of Fouqnet, the famous prime minister of Lonis XIV. 

The chief business of the island has always been the fishery of sar- 
dines. During the season, which is in summer, many fishermen from the 
main-land flock to the island, and near a thousand boats, large and small, 
are engaged in laying the nets. The fish are, for the most part, cured 
at Le Palais. Besides these boats, a number of extremely picturesque 
chasses-marees, or two-masted luggers, admirably effective, whether on the 
gray-green sea of the Bay of Biscay or in a marine painting, are owned 
at Belleisle, and are engaged all the year round in dragging for turbot 
and lobsters. The ship-yard at the head of the port, where these luggers 
are built, is attractively picturesque, under a hill, and shaded by a grove 
of lindens, leading to a public promenade. 

Everything here is in miniature, and there is little of the very strik- 
ing or impressive character belonging to many of the Atlantic isles. In 
a week one can see it all, and yet there is a certain nameless charm about 



184 TOE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

if which is both novel and piquant, while the cliffs on the southern coast 
are often very wild and grand. The climate in winter and spring is 
milder even than that of the main-land of Brittany, besides being more 
free from fogs, more sunny, more bland. For an invalid nothing can 
be imagined more agreeable or soothing than some of the cheerful sunny 
days of charming little Belleisle during two or three seasons of the year. 
The prevalence of easterly or land winds and absence of shade in summer 
make it rather warmer than is generally the case on islands, although 
quite bearable in that latitude, while the fine beaches on the north-eastern 
coast afford excellent bathing -places, much resorted to by those from 
France whose means or tastes lead them to avoid Boulogne or Biarritz. 

The island is divided into four parishes : Le Palais, Port Philippe, 
Bangor, and Locmaria. Each of the three country parishes has a nucleus 
where the parish church stands, and collects around it the peasantry on 
fete-days and Sundays. Besides this nucleus, the houses of each parish 
are scattered in little knots, or hamlets, of five to ten houses, a quarter to 
half a mile apart; I counted at one time fourteen within a radius of a 
mile and a half. Port Philippe alone numbers thirty-five of these minia- 
ture villages. At this place is a harbor with a mole and light-house. A 
beautiful valley continues across the island from this little port to Point 
Stervrose, a small peninsula, with a narrow bay on one side, called the Port 
Yienx Chateau, where the largest ships can ride at any tide, but evidently 
more impracticable in our day than in the time of the Roman conquest, 
owing, possibly, to a change in the prevailing winds. The plateau of this 
peninsula has from very early times been called the " Camp of the Ro- 
mans. 1 ' Before the invention of cannon it could afford an impregnable 
position for 5000 or 6000 men — say, a legion. On the sea side the cliffs 
fall vertically over 100 feet everywhere, while the land side is protected 
by a rampart and trench extending entirely across, perhaps 200 yards; it 
is excellently preserved, and there is little question of its Roman origin. 
The coast-line from Point des Paulins westward to Locmaria on the east is 
very impressive, generally perpendicular, presenting some very remarkable 
rocks and cliffs, and a notable souffleuse near Vieux Chateau. The isl- 
anders graphically call the south-western shore, where the surf breaks all 
the year round on the cliffs, " La Mer Sauvage." Mr. Ruskin has some- 
where inveighed very severely against such artists as have dared to present 
a precipice as actually vertical, or sometimes overhanging, asserting, in 
his usual dogmatical and vehement manner, that such cliffs never occur, 
and are impossible in nature. Those who know his style can easily im- 
agine to what depths of infamy he consigns the artist who has been thus 



BELLEISLE-EN-MER. 185 

guilty of what this critic considers falsehood. Often have I thought of 
this passage in my wanderings, when I have seen instances which prove 
that in this case, as sometimes in others, Mr. Ruskin's statement must be 
taken as having more rhetoric than truth in it. With a perpendicular 
line for comparison, I have repeatedly proved that it is possible for cliffs 
to be both vertical and overhanging. At Belleisle I saw the head of a 
sea precipice overhanging its base in several places, notably at the Port 
Vieux Chateau. 

In Bangor, near the edge of the cliffs, stands a light-house, soaring 165 
feet from the ground and 302 feet above the sea, constructed in the most 
massive and careful manner, and lighted by a Fresnel- light of the first 
class. The lantern is finished on the interior with polished slabs of varie- 
gated marble. It is worth a visit to Belleisle to see this light -house, 
which is probably the finest in existence, unless we except, perhaps, the 
one at Cordonan, at the mouth of the Gironde, built by Henry IV., if I 
remember rightly. The French coast is everywhere very finely lighted. 

The largest and most elegant homestead on the island is owned by M. 
Trochu, brother of General Trochu, whom he strongly resembles. They 
are both natives of Belleisle. The house stands a little out of the town, 
surrounded "by a picturesque wood of evergreens. The courteous and 
hospitable proprietor is interested in agricultural progress, and devotes 
his energies to raising early market crops. 

My rambles about this choice little isle were chiefly in a rather primi- 
tive two- wheeled carriage, accompanied by a chatty, good-natured driver, 
who seemed to know every one we met, and was able to call them by 
name. The peddler, with his leather leggings and pack of cloths and 
trinkets suited to the wants and tastes of the country women, seemed 
to be ubiquitous. I met him on the highway, or by the shore, or in the 
cabaret, and found him, like peddlers generally, garrulous, long-winded, 
and not likely to die for lack of cheek. When unfolding his goods to 
a bevy of rosy, black-eyed girls, his unlimited flow of words was often 
seasoned with flattering remarks and jokes just broad enough to make 
them blush and giggle in the most entertaining manner. I met him once 
when I stepped into an auberge in Bangor to snatch a bit of lunch. The 
landlady, a buxom widow, had two daughters, whose intense black eyes, 
raven tresses, and warm brunette complexions, tinged with red, would set 
an artist raving. They were all having a very merry time of it, -bantering 
over the goods contained in the peddler's pack. He was rolling out his 
grandiloquent periods and fluent falsehoods with extraordinary volubility ; 
but when I called for a bottle of wine and the necessary adjuncts of a 



1S6 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



" pennyworth of bread " and meat, lie developed a sudden and remark- 
able interest in me. While the widow was spreading the table, he left 
his goods and came and sat himself down opposite me at the table. 
" Monsieur, if I mistake not, is a traveller in our fair little island ?" 
" So it seems," I replied, distantly. 

""An Englishman, perhaps, who, having the leisure and the means 
denied to so many, wisely devotes his intelligent observation to travel V 

I shrugged my shoul- 
ders, as much as to say, 
" Have it so if you like." 
" Now, if you are 
looking about Belleisle, 
monsieur, allow me to 
assure you that I am 
your man if you wish 
a competent guide, who 
knows every legend, and 
every nook and cranny 
from one end to the 
other of the island." 

" I am already pro- 
vided with a guide. 
Jean, the driver, knows 
all I want to know about 
Belleisle, and he does 
not talk too much ; he 
is un brave garcon." 

Not abashed by this 
rebuff, he fetched a glass 
unasked, and tasted of 
my wine. " That is very 
fair for a vin ordinaire," 
he said. . " I was afraid madame might not have given you her best wine." 
Finding I could not very well get rid of a varlet who had made up 
his mind to lunch at my expense, without causing " a coldness in the 
meeting," and rather enjoying his impudence, and willing to please the 
hostess, who seemed to be kindly and polite, I called for another bottle 
of wine and a plate for the peddler, and soon the conversation became 
general and very entertaining, the widow and her daughters and my 
driver joining in the gossip, and a peasant or two who were going by, sit- 




PEASANT-GIRL, BELLEISLE. 



BELLEISLE-EN-MER. 187 

ting on the doorstep or looking in at the window, and contributing their 
share to the palaver. I noticed in them all, as in the peasantry of Europe 
generally, simplicity and cunning, gross ignorance, and a quaint, crafty 
shrewdness clashing, and curiously contrasted. One thing I feel quite 
certain of, and that is, that country folk are not as such more honest than 
other people, although honesty and rusticity are often thought to be in- 
terchangeable terms. 

But the day came which I had set to leave Belleisle-en-mer. I was 
called before dawn. It cost me a struggle to keep to my resolution, for 
it was storming furiously out of the south-west. The wind was howling 
over the roofs of the little town, and the rain was pelting the window- 
panes ; nor did the prospect seem more cheerful as I went down to the 
quay in the dripping dimness of the early morning. Two steamers and 
several ships were lying in the roads, having run in there to ride out the 
storm under the lee of the island. Our little steamer was at the mouth 
of the port. It was not for her to consult winds and weather, when the 
wind at least was fair, for she carried the mails. We rowed out to her 
in a small boat, and were soon under way, and the little island was 
rapidly hidden from us in a dense curtain of gray mist. And now we had 
a race with the tide. The sea was running from the south-west, and, so 
long as the tide went with it, was comparatively regular, although high ; 
but just so soon as the tide should turn, the sea would become tumultuous 
and dangerous, especially in the narrow passage by the Teignouse Light, 
where numerous reefs and islets tend to make the waves more broken. 
We crowded on all sail and steam, and passed the Teignouse a few 
minutes before the tide turned. The tremendous breakers, rolling just 
under our lee on the savage, bristling reefs, or dashing, high and ghostly, 
up the sides of the light-house, were terrible arjd sublime; but once in- 
side of the rocky barrier, we found the water comparatively smooth, and 
glided rapidly toward Auray. 



18S THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



CHAPTER X. 

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 

THE Caroll packet steamed away from Tea Wharf, Boston Harbor, 
one glorious noon -time in August, bound to Charlottetown, Prince 
Edward Island. Having paid ten dollars in gold to the International 
Steamship Company, the writer was graciously permitted to occupy a 
state-room in the after-cabin. Board, which w r as "fair to middling," was 
extra — a wise provision in favor of sea-sick passengers, but a doubtful 
economy in my case, as I never yet lost a meal at sea. Early on the sec- 
ond day we sighted and passed near to Sambro' Head, a cruel, iron-gray 
mass of granite off the entrance to Halifax, crowned by a light- house 
which is celebrated in naval annals. The port of Halifax is very spacious, 
being really the widening of an estuary, which, after winding some twenty 
miles, loses itself in the woods of Nova Scotia. This is a noble sheet of 
water, admirably situated for yachting, to which some attention is given 
by local yachtsmen. The view of the harbor from the fort behind the 
city is both extensive and beautiful ; and from the opposite village of 




.j^^g"*^^; ini ......T^- n",-*- - mr ■■'■-f r jpm*L.- r * < A 



SAMBRO LIGHT. — ENTRANCE TO HALIFAX HARBOR. 

Dartmouth, Halifax presents an effective and pleasing picture, as seen 
in profile on a hill-side sloping to the water. But a close inspection of the 
city does not add to the visitor's interest in Halifax. It is one of those 
places which residents assure us improve on acquaintance ; but it certain- 



PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. lS(J 

ly does not leave a very favorable impression on the stranger. Judging 
from my own experience, he who has seen it once never wants to see it 



f 4 *gV-4>%fi: 



ENTRANCE TO STRAIT OF CANSO. 



again; and he whom a mysterious Providence has directed hither a second 
time, wonders what sin may have caused him twice to realize the meaning 
of the amiable exclamation, " Go to Halifax !" 

In the afternoon w r e steamed out again, and headed eastward for Can- 
so. Down the savage, reefy coast of Nova Scotia we scudded before a 
sou'- westerly gale, accompanied with lightning, and passed through the 
river-like strait of Canso on a fine breezy morning, that enabled us to see 
to best advantage a really beautiful sheet of water. We touched at Port 
Ilawkesbury a few moments — a village of small houses, generally devoid 
of paint and destitute of verdure, and scattered about the naked hill-sides 
without order. Cape Porcupine, on the left, is a bold headland of con- 
siderable height. After passing this, we came out on the broad blue wa- 
ters of the St. Lawrence, arriving at Pictou at noon-time of the third day 
out. A lovely bay is the bay of Pictou. As one enters, Prince Edward 
Island skirts the northern horizon, a low, pale line ; nearer rises Pictou 
Isle, red-cliffed and wood-tufted. On the left is the spit lying in front 
of the port, sustaining a striped light -house. In the distance, gray and 
dreamy, a mile or two down the bay, are the spires of Pictou topping the 
slope of a range of hills. From the summit of these hills the traveller 
who climbs them is rewarded by one of the most beautiful and extensive 
water views on the continent: the broad bay of Pictou, invading the land 
with many steel-hued winding arms and creeks, and studded, in turn, with 
islets; the flashing surf on the bar; the green rolling land fading in a 
golden haze inimitably toward the setting sun; the dark-purple Gulf of 
St. Lawrence spreading as inimitably toward the east, with roseate cliffs 
skirting the offing like phantom islands — all contribute to compose a 



190 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



picture inexhaustible in its variety and the satisfying character of its at- 
tractions. 

Pictou is the seat of coal-mines, and large quantities of the mineral 
are exported. Here our steamer coaled for the trip. A tunnel of iron 




HALIFAX, FROM THE CITADEL. 



plates was fitted to the forward hatchway, and a platform was lowered 
over the hold. The cars were run out on this, and through a trap-door 
in the bottom of the car the coal was dropped into the vessel. In a few 
hours we had taken a hundred tons of coal on board, and about three in 
the morning left Pictou for Charlottetown. At sunrise we lay in Hills- 
borough Bay in a dead calm. A light, low fog hovered on the water di- 
rectly across the entrance to the port, and we were forced to wait for the 
sun to dispel it. We were surrounded by the red cliffs of Governor's, St. 
Peter's, and Prince Edward islands, mirrored on the glassy surface of the 
bay with absolute fidelity, or half lifted in the air by a partial mirage. 
Here and there a schooner lay idly over the quivering reflection of its own 
spars and sails. Overhead, the sky was cloudless azure, specked only by 
flocks of wild-fowl, and no sound disturbed the magical stillness of this 
peaceful scene but the far-reaching, quavering cry of the loon throbbing 
over the water. 

On the clearing away of the fog we glided by the light -house on 
Rocky Point and the wreck which lies close thereby, and Charlottetown, 
with the broad estuaries that branch away from it for many miles in three 



PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 191 

directions, under the names of North, East, and West rivers, was revealed 
to us in the sheen of the morning sun. Charlottetown, in Queens Coun- 
ty, the capital of the island, is a city of 9000 inhabitants, on a tongue of 
land between North and East rivers. The city was founded about 1765, 
on a regular plan. The streets are of great width, and are laid out at 
right angles to each other on parallel lines. The houses are generally 
small and unpretentious in their appearance, but neat; while in some parts 
of the city, along the esplanade and inland, past the Government buildings, 
dwellings of considerable taste and elegance, and embowered in shrubbery, 
are growing more numerous every year. The residence of the governor 
is a neat building, admirably situated at the head of a close-shaven lawn, 
which slopes down to the water, and flanked by the sighing pines of the 
primeval forest. The present occupant, Sir William Hodgson, is the first 
native governor placed over the island. He is a hale old gentleman of 
eighty-six — genial, courteous, and capable. The other Government offices 
are situated on Queen's Square, in the centre of the town, and surprise the 
visitor by the completeness and elegance of their construction and arrange- 
ment. They consist of a state-house, in which are included the halls for 
the Upper and Lower Houses of the Legislature, and other offices ; of a 
court-house, just completed; and of a post-office which will compare favor- 
ably with many of the post-offices in our larger cities. Of the manage- 
ment of the postal department, I cannot speak in the same terms. I 
found the clerks at all the island offices unnecessarily inquisitive, and ca- 
pable of incredible blunders. There is also inexcusable laxness in the for- 
warding and care of letters and mail-bags, insomuch that I never felt sure 
of receiving letters addressed to me, at least not for long after they were 
due, or that mine would reach their destination after I had posted them. 



LH.HT-HOC»£.. KNTUANL'E TO P1CTOU PORT. 



That this was not my own experience alone was evidenced 'by the fre- 
quent complaints against the department constantly appearing in the local 
papers. This defect in the administration of the Government supervision 



192 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



is one of serious and increasing importance, and demands immediate re- 
form. It is said that, until within a very few years, such was the high- 
handed authority assumed by the self-styled upper classes of Prince Ed- 
ward Island that it was by no means uncommon for letters to be seized 








M 





GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CHARLOTTETOWN. 



and examined by them with no other right than that of the strongest. 
Under the modifying influences of the Dominion and increasing inter- 
course with the United States, many customs suggested by a colonial state 
of things are gradually passing away as obsolete ; but the divisions of 
caste, so strong in England, and preserved with so much more intensity in 
all her colonies, are still maintained in Charlottetown with a rigor that, 
if it were not pernicious and prejudicial to true social progress, would be 
ridiculous ; for whatever palliation there may be for it elsewhere, there is 
none in a place where the richest are but moderately well off, where in- 
tellectual culture is at a low ebb, where no men of such superior ability 
have yet arisen as to found even the only aristocracy for which there is 
any plausible excuse, the nobility of moral and mental supremacy. 

The market, in Queen's Square, is a noteworthy building. On market- 
days — Wednesdays and Fridays — the farmers come in from the country 
with provisions of every sort : provender for cattle, fish from the rivers 
and the sea, homespun goods, game, confectionery, and the like. These 
are arranged in stalls in the interior, and the towns-people assemble to 
purchase a stock of food to keep them alive until the next market-day. 
Around the building wagons and carts are collected, loaded with hay or 
lobsters. It is quite a lively and interesting scene, deriving pictnresque- 
ness from the ruddy complexions and flaxen or coal-black tresses of the 
buxom Scotch and French country lassies, and the tawny, unkempt Indian 
squaws from Rocky Point. 

The churches of Charlottetown have little to boast of. The ritualists 
have begun a chapel with a slant to the roof so excessively steep as to 



PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 



193 



come within the term " loud." The zeal of the congregation is in excess 
of their funds, and the building is at present like a chapter to a serial 
story whose author is at a loss to furnish material for the next chapter. 
The Kirk are erecting a neat, commodious edifice to replace the present 
sanctuary, which, it is pleasant to report, is too small for their enlarged 
congregation. The Methodists have the handsomest church in the city, 
and are in a flourishing condition. The Roman Catholics worship in a 
large, barn-like structure of wood. They are active, and are spurred on 
to increased architectural efforts by the bishop, who, considering that ap- 
pearances have great weight with a large portion of unreflecting mortals, 
has devoted his episcopal labors to the increase of the brick and mortar 
owned by the Church. A costly residence for the bishop of that com- 
munion and extensive buildings for convents and schools have also been 
erected recently at Tignish and Charlottetown, and one is to be reared 
soon at Souris. The population of the island is 94,021, of whom about 
42,000 are in Queens County. The number of Roman Catholics is 40,765. 
The average increase in Protestants during the last seven years has been 
18.8 per cent. ; the increase in Roman Catholics has been 13.7 per cent. 
The present free-education act was passed in 1852 ; a Board of Education 
exists, and the entire cost of public instruction is defrayed out of the gen- 
eral revenue. 




METHODIST CHURCH AND PART OF CHARLOTTETOWN — EAST RIVER IN THE DISTANCE. 



A subject which has seriously agitated the island for nearly a cen- 
tury is the land question. The island, which is 140 miles in length and 
34 miles wide, was discovered by Cabot, who called it St. Jolin ; and 
it still retains that name among the French to this day. As the Eng- 
lish failed to take possession of it at the time of discovery, Verazain 

13 



194 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



claimed both the discovery and possession of it for the French in 1523, 
and it was granted by them to the Sieur Danbet, who, with a company 
of adventurers, established several fishing stations there. When the Aca- 
dians emigrated from Nova Scotia, in 1713, many of them settled on the 
Isle St. Jean, and a garrison was stationed at Port la Joie, now Charlotte- 
town. By the Treaty of Fontaine- 
bleau, in 1763, the island was ceded 
to Great Britain, and received its 
present name. The victorious Gov- 
ernment immediately decreed a care- 
ful survey of the island, and vari- 
ous plans for settling and dividing 
the lands were proposed. Lord Eg- 
mont, then First Lord of the Ad- 
miralty, devised a Utopian scheme 
to this end, which was supported by 
powerful influences. It was based on 
the theory that the perils from the 
Indians and other foes were much 
more formidable than they actually 
were. His memorial prayed for a 
grant of the whole island, holding the 
same as a fief to the crown forever. 
The two million acres, more or 
less, which the island was estimated 
to contain, were to be divided into 
fifty parts, called baronies or hun- 
dreds, forty of these to be granted to as many men with the title of Lords 
of Hundreds, owing feudal allegiance to him as Lord Paramount. These 
baronies were in turn to be subdivided into manors of two thousand acres 
each. Five hundred acres from each barony were to be set apart for 
a township. Fairs were to be held in each barony four times yearly, 
and market twice weekly. Many other feudal regulations relating to 
the judiciary, and the building of numerous castles and other matters, were 
included in this extraordinary memorial, which was intended to transfer 
to this side of the Atlantic a system better suited to the state of affairs in 
the times of King Alfred and William the Conqueror, on the supposition 
that the island was a place " where the settler can scarce straggle from 
his habitation five hundred yards, even in times of peace, without risk of 
being intercepted, scalped, and murdered ;" the fact being that the Mic- 




AVENL'E LEADING TO GOVEKNMENT HOUSE. 



PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 



105 



macs, never very numerous, were quite inoffensive, and it is doubtful if a 
white man ever lost his hair on the island, except in the natural way. 

Lord Egmont's plan failed of acceptance ; but another scheme for di- 
viding the lands, which was adopted, was also open to grave objections, 
as proved by subsequent results. The island, with some reservations for 
fortifications, churches, and other public purposes, was divided into sixtv- 
six lots. One lot was reserved for the crown ; the remainder w T ere in one 
day awarded by ballot to as many grantees, who had merited reward for 
military or political services. Quit-rents were reserved on all these lots, 
payable at the end of ten years, it being also stipulated that each town- 
ship should be settled within that period by at least one person for every 
two hundred acres, and, failing fulfilment of the conditions by the gran- 
tees, the land to be forfeited. On a petition by the proprietors, the colony 
was granted a local government of its own ; but the governor was ap- 
pointed by the king. Captain Walter Patterson was the first governor, 
and the quit-rents were made payable at the end of twenty years. 

The conditions accepted by the grantees, or those to whom they sold 
their rights and grants, were in many cases unfulfilled, and they thus law- 
fully escheated to the crown. The acts of Governor Patterson under the 
circumstances, the action of the home government, the long struggle, re- 
sulting in a drawn battle between all concerned, form an intricate storv, 




MARKET BUILDING, CHARLOTTETOWN. 



too long for repetition in these pages. But long since the recall of Patter- 
son, during the present generation, new difficulties have arisen, resembling 
the famous anti-rent wars of New York. Those whom the planters have 
invited or permitted to settle on their lands for certain rentals have, in 



196 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

many cases, claimed that the rents were in excess of the value of the 
lands, or that they had already paid enough to entitle them to hold the 
lands they occupy as freeholds. The problem was partially solved by the 
purchase of some of the territory under dispute by the colonial Govern- 
ment, and selling it over to the farmers under more favorable conditions. 
Since the island entered the Dominion, on the 1st of July, 1873, the ques- 
tion lias again come up, and a royal commission was appointed for the 
appraisal and purchase of the large estates still remaining in the families 
of the original owners, the sum of $800,000 having been appropriated for 
this purpose by the Dominion as one of the conditions on which the island 
joined the confederation. Thus far the appraisals seem to have been fair 
and impartial, although, from the nature of the case, inevitably giving rise 
to considerable discontent and hardship in some instances. It is one of 
those questions on which much may be said for each side, and with regard 
to which the public good would appear to require an act of seeming bad 
faith on the part of the Government. The best good of the largest num- 
ber is a right to be exercised with great caution, and the moral question 
involved in the consideration of the rights of the minority is not often re- 
garded with sufficient attention by a ruling majority. 

Since Prince Edward Island joined the Dominion, it has taken a fresh 
start in the march of improvement, and evidences of this are everywhere 
seen in its increasing commerce, the growing value of the fisheries, the 
many new buildings going up in Chark>ttetown and the environs, and the 
new railroad, measuring 167 miles in length, and completed in the year 
1875. It is run on a gauge so narrow that only three persons can sit in 
the cars abreast, the seats being for one and for two persons alternately on 
each side of the car. The rolling stock was made on the island, and is 
very creditable. The car windows are not washed quite often enough, 
however. Ship-building is also in a very thriving condition. In the vari- 
ous ship-yards of Mount Stewart, Snmmerside, and Souris, I counted six- 
teen vessels going up, from seventy-five to twelve hundred tons in size, and 
I heard of others building at Fortune Bay and elsewhere at the same time. 
The new tonnage built for export for the fiscal year of 1874-'75 amount- 
ed to $632,440 in value. The total value of the exports during the same 
period was $1,940,901, of which lumber was $105,407; agricultural prod- 
ucts, $787,070 ; live stock, $94,047 ; and fisheries, $308,037. Of the last 
item the United States took $272,620, and the total exports to the States 
of the products of the island for the year reached $365,352. It is worthy 
of mention that the fisheries of the island and the commerce in the same 
are chiefly in the hands of two enterprising Americans, Messrs. Churchill 



PKINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 



107 



and Hall. For the same period the total value of the imports of Prince 
Edward Island amounted to $1,973,222, the balance of trade showing an 
increasing demand for foreign goods. .It should be added that the fore- 
going data are o-iven on a ^old basis. 

But one who has been in Charlottetown a week or two is not satisfied 
only with the evidences of insular prosperity furnished at the Government 
offices by the courteous and efficient servants of Her Majesty, or by the 
pleasant glimpses of farm, and river, and sea gained from window and 
roof. These very charming bits of nature only serve to tempt the visitor 
to sally forth, and, in carriage or boat or by rail, to view for himself the 
exquisite beauty of the island, and the proofs offered on every hand of 
its thriving condition, as well as the manifold attractions it offers to the 
tourist and invalid — in summer and fall, should be added with emphasis. 
In winter, which begins with November and lasts until May sometimes, 
Prince Edward offers special inducements to those who enjoy six months 
of snow, and unlimited opportunities for sitting by the fireside o 1 stormy 
nights and listenino; to the furious din of sleet and hail beating against 
the ringing panes. Northumberland Strait, which separates the island 
from the main-land, is frozen over from December to April, or, rather, it 
is filled with floating ice, which sometimes freezes together in a compact 
mass. Where the strait is but nine miles wide, the mail is carried across 




CARRYING THE MAILS ACROSS NOKTULMBERLAND STRAIT IN WINTER. 



every day on the ice, sometimes at great hazard. A boat on -runners is 
used to carry the bags, serving, as the case may require, either as boat or 
sledge. The labor of going over the ice-hummocks is often excessively 
laborious. Travel is, of course, almost entirely stopped for the season. I 



19S 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



heard of one lady who went across on the ice to attend by the bed of her 
dying son. But in summer the weather is moderate and equable — more 
equable than that of the adjacent continent. Vegetation springs forward 




SCENE ON HUKTEK lilVEK. 



rapidly after the winter has fairly passed away; and the verdure on the 
fields, including wild flowers, continues later than in the New England 
States. Fogs, which are common in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and on the 
Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, are very rare on and around Prince Ed- 
ward Island ; and hay fever, that distressing complaint, avoidable only by 
change of locality, is unknown on that lovely isle. 

Steamers ply up the East and West rivers, and an afternoon spent on 
each of these takes one through beautiful scenery, and gives a fair idea 
of the characteristic beauty of the island. Never over five hundred feet 
high, the landscape is rarely monotonous, for in the interior it is much 
broken and undulating, while it falls away toward the sea and the bays 
into gentle slopes which terminate in abrupt red cliffs fifty to seventy 
feet high. The brilliant tints — vivid orange and Indian red — of the new 
red sandstone, still in a formative state, harmonize admirably with the rich 
ultramarine of the water and the white trunks of the birch woods, or the 
emerald of the natural lawns which gradually slope to the water, in front 



PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 



199 



of neat, cosy farm - houses, kept in good condition, and sheltered from 
the winter gales by clumps of primeval fir, pine, and spruce. Nowhere 
very striking, the scenery of these rivers is charmingly rural and pictu- 
resque, everywhere pleasing, and offering quiet little bits that the artistic 
eye might transfer effectively to canvas. On Rocky Point, opposite Char- 
lottetown, is a settlement of Micmac Indians, who live by fishing, hunting, 
and barter. They are inoffensive and indolent. But the largest settle- 
ment of Micmacs, the only tribe now on the island, is at Lennox Island, 
in Richmond Bay, which is reserved for them, and there they hold their 
annual powwows. Their number is gradually decreasing, and does not 
now exceed three hundred and five. They are in charge of a special 
commissioner. 

A delightful excursion may be made to Rustico from Charlottetown. 
Going by rail to Hunter River Station, one finds himself at once in a 
beautiful region among hills, and glens, and wooded streams. Thence a 
carriage carries the traveller over farming country resembling some of 
the most beautiful portions of old England, by way of Wheatley River 
to Rustico Bay. On the road I passed a country school-house at recess- 




FISH-HOUSE AND STAGE, AND FISHING-BOATS, RUSTICO. 



time. The children were playing in the road, but when they saw the 
carriage approaching they ranged themselves in a row, and as I went by 
the girls courtesied low, and the lads bowed in the most respectful manner. 



200 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



It was a quaint and pleasing sight, and might be imitated by our school- 
children with advantage. Passing by the French settlement and Roman 
Catholic church at Rustico, we jogged along to the end of a peninsula that 




*-** 



FISHING-BOATS BEATING INTO MJSTICO HARBOR, BETWEEN THE BAR AND THE SPIT: BATHING-HOUSE IN THE FORE- 
GROUND. 

is near the mouth of the baj*. The last part of the way was over a kelp- 
strewn beach which is covered at high tide. There, on a bluff, I found 
the Rustico House, admirably situated on the edge of the spruce woods. 
Facing the bay, like a breakwater, lies a sand-spit tufted with long salt 
grass. Opposite the hotel is the entrance into the bay. The flashing roll- 
ers of the St. Lawrence Gulf break on a bar across the mouth, and be- 
tween the bar and the shore is a narrow, shallow channel. Through this, 
twice daily during the season, the little fishing-schooners of the port pass 
out to fish for shore mackerel and herring. It is a very pretty sight to 
watch a fleet of these white-sailed fishermen dodging in and out about 
the bar. The fish are landed on stages built out over the water inside 
the port. Outside of the spit, on the sandy beach, there is excellent surf 
bathing, and bathing-houses are also furnished to visitors, who enjoy, in 
addition, good boating facilities; and, of course, capital sport is afforded 
for those who love the rod and the line. The mackerel fishing outside 



PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 



201 



is exciting and novel, while the Hunter and Wheatley rivers in the im- 
mediate vicinity offer numerous attractions to sportsmen, especially in sea- 
trout fishing. The sea trout is a fish peculiar to the waters of Prince Ed- 
ward Island, living in rivers or arms of the sea which, influenced by the 
tides, are alternately salt and fresh. It is the size of the lake trout, with 
silvery skin, and pink flesh like that of the salmon. It is caught with the 
fly, and is game for the best sportsmen. The season for this fish is chiefly 
during June and July, and East River, near Charlottetown, Dunk, Mo- 
rell, Winter, Hunter, and Trout rivers are the streams in which it is 'most 
abundant. Salmon is also common in these streams; but shad is scarce. 
All the rivers of the island were restocked in 1876, and the Dominion 
fishing laws enforced. Lobsters are very abundant, and large canning 
factories have been established at Alberton and Souris. Duck, snipe, teal* 
plover, quail, and other game are sufficiently abundant to make hunting 
attractive, and dogs trained for sport are common. Wolves and deer, for- 
merly plenty, are now all but extinct; but a few beaver and otter are still 
found: and in the tangled depths of the primeval forests, which still exist 
here and there, black bears are quite numerous, hibernating undisturbed 
in winter, and creeping forth sometimes in summer to try a fat slice out 




FISHING PARTY. 



of a tender young heifer. Oysters of the finest quality abound in the 
bays of Prince Edward Island. They are not as large as our largest, but 
they make up for size in flavor and lusciousness. Eedeque oysters from 



202 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

Richmond Bay are already famous, and are shipped in large quantities to 
Great Britain and other parts of the Dominion. 

The agricultural products of the island are of less relative importance 
than those of its waters, yet they are noteworthy. The woodlands, con- 
sisting of beech, birch, maple, spruce, and fir chiefly, are gradually thin- 
ning out, while the product of grain, and hay, and vegetables, especially 
potatoes, is increasing. Fruits are in a backward state, and must always 
remain more or less so, owing to the lateness of the summers. The apples 
are hard and sour at best. Apple-pies there must be made according 
to a receipt furnished by a sprightly young lady of the island : " Put 
in sugar as long as your conscience will allow ; then shut your eyes and 
throw it in by handfuls." Rich pasture is seen everywhere, and the land- 
scape is dotted in all directions w T ith cattle and horses. As one rides along 
the roads and sees the beautiful horses and colts galloping or grazing on 
every farm, he is reminded of the Homeric period when Thessaly was 
famed for its steeds, and the heroes of the Trojan war w r ere styled owners 
or tamers of fast horses. 

Returning to Hunter River Station over the highest land on the island 
by the very charming road through New Glasgow, the tourist can take 
the cars to Souris, at the north-eastern end of the island. The railroad 
in this direction passes through a more level country, but more savage 
and melancholy, because less inhabited, and presenting waste moorlands 
abandoned to the rabbit, the grouse, and the bear. At Mount Stewart 
a branch of the road turns off to Georgetown, on Cardigan Bay, a sleepy, 
aristocratic, unenterprising town. Souris is quite the reverse. Originally 
a French settlement, and receiving its name from a swarm of field-mice 
which once invaded it, the little place, since the railroad has reached it, 
has sprung into a new existence. Houses are rising in every direction, 
and its ship-yards ring with the merry, tumultuous din of calkers' mal- 
lets. The port is exposed to southerly gales. Some years ago twenty- 
three schooners went ashore there in one day. But the Dominion has 
appropriated $60,000 to continue the breakwater across part of it, and 
this will give a fresh impetus to the prosperity of one of the most thriv- 
ing towns I have seen in the Dominion. The neighborhood of Souris 
is very attractive. The drives are of the most pleasing character, the land- 
scape quiet, home-like, and yet stimulating to the imagination. At Gowan 
Brae, the late residence of John MacGowan, Esq., is a hillock which bears 
unmistakable evidences of being artificial, and it is most probably the 
funeral mound of an Indian chief of other days. 

Malpeque, or Richmond Bay, near the west end of Prince Edward 



PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 203 

Island, is a large and beautiful sheet of water. The island is here but 
three miles wide, for Bedeqne Bay makes a deep indentation on the south- 
ern shore. On the latter lies Summerside, a town which scarcely had an 
existence twenty years ago. It has not grown quite as rapidly as Chicago ; 
but within five years it has greatly gained in commercial importance, 
and in that respect appears to be in advance of any other town on the 
island, except Charlottetown. The steamer which connects Prince Edward 
with the railroad on the main-land plies daily between Summerside and 
Shediac, thirty-five miles distant, on the opposite side of the strait. On 
each side the cars run out on a jetty to meet the boat. This, of course, 
adds greatly to the business activity of Summerside. In the bay, a mile 
from the town, and at the mouth of the Dunk River, is Indian Island, 
ou which Mr. Holman, one of the enterprising men of Summerside, has 
erected a hotel called the Island Park Hotel. This islet is just one mile 
in circumference, and is overgrown with picturesque primeval woods. 
These have been very judiciously intersected by rural drives and walks. 
The building itself, which is after the American plan, faces the harbor 
and the town ; and bath-houses, billiard-tables, bowling-alleys, and other 
decoys to attract the traveller in search of health or pleasure, are provided. 
At low tide the strait on the south side can be easily forded, and the drives 
on that part of Prince Edward Island are charming. 

Of the people, so far as personal observation goes, I can speak favora- 
bly. Among them are many descendants of loyalists of our Revolution, 
who are generally more opposed to the United States than others. The 
general feeling toward our country is, however, apparently friendly, and, 
until quite recently, the desire for a reciprocity treaty was very strong. 
But underneath is, I am convinced, an undercurrent strongly English, 
notwithstanding that the people are really more like Yankees than Eng- 
lishmen in their habits and language. There is just difference enough 
between their ships, their houses, their vehicles or agricultural tools, their 
papers and their colloquial diction, for a careful observer to note that he 
is not in the United States ; but often the difference is nearly impercep- 
tible. It is in their value of time that I discovered the greatest dissimi- 
larity. The phrase "Time is money" is certainly not true on Prince Ed- 
ward Island, however true it may be with us. No one is on hand when 
he should be. Everything is done with a leisure that would imply lon- 
gevity rivalling that of Methuselah. Punctuality in the hours of meals 
at the hotels is a thing not dreamed of, resulting in great waste of time 
and cold food. Nor did I see any evidence anywhere or in the character 
of any one that indicated that the word has any meaning on Prince Ed- 



204 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

ward Island. This taking life easy is a very delightful thing under some 
circumstances, but it will not do in this age and in the Western World, 
in the wholesale manner in which it is practised on that beautiful island, 
for those who desire to rise in the world. And herein seems to be partly 
the reason why the British Provinces of North America have not pro- 
gressed as rapidly as their neighbors south of the Great Lakes. 

Of the hospitality of the islanders I can speak in high terms; and 
to Mr. Campbell, author of a forth-coming history of the island, and 
many others, the writer is indebted for numerous acts of courtesy, which 
aided to render the pursuit of knowledge in the Gulf of St. Lawrence a 
fascinating pleasure excursion. I returned by way of Summerside, She- 
diac, and St. John, New Brunswick, arriving at the latter place in ten 
hours from the island. From St. John, Portland can be reached by rail 
or steamboat, and the tourist who does not like travelling by water can 
thus go to Prince Edward Island entirely by land, excepting the thirty- 
five miles in a strong boat across Northumberland Strait. 



ISLES OF SHOALS. £05 



CHAPTER XI. 

ISLES OF SHOALS. 

A BOUT seven miles from the coast of New Hampshire lie the Isles 
-^*- of Shoals. Their situation is admirably planned with a view to har- 
monizing the sometimes conflicting wants of guests and landlords, of tour- 
ists and invalids, and of the proprietors of hotels. They seem to be a 




SHAG AND JI1NGO ROCKS, DICK ISLAND. 

cluster of nuggets conveniently dropped off our coast where they can be 
turned into current coin by enterprising hotel-keepers, artists, poets, and 
scribblers of a thrifty turn. 

Often had I passed by these islets, in all times and weathers, and 
welcomed the gleam of the friendly light on White Island, which warns 
the mariner to give them a wide berth in heavy weather. But the first 
time I ever landed there was on a yachting cruise a year or two ago. 
Once before had I started for the "Shoals" in my little sloop, the Zephyr, 
but we so loitered on the way, fascinated by the many curious attractive 
nooks along the coast, that when we at last stood across toward the islands 
we were overtaken by a gale of wind and forced to put into Newburyport, 
and sailed thence directly for home. But at length it was destined that I 
should reach the islands, having been invited to make one of a party in a 
small sloop-yacht, and assist in navigating her. 

It was a charming morning in July. Various express wagons brought 



206 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 




* 




i 




Londoner, 



to Webb's Wharf, in 
Salem, panniers of 
provisions, bundles 
of bedding and cloth- 
ing, a breaker of wa- 
ter, and a medley 
of all sorts of arti- 
cles . liable to be 
needed in a yacht- 
ing cruise. And af- 
ter everything was 
in readiness, Frank, 
the hired hand who 
was to help about 
the yacht, and do 
such odds and ends 



of work as we were willing to shirk, made his appearance. 
He had served on a crack yacht, and claimed to be able 
to do all that is required of an able seaman. His pro- 
fessions were found to be rather in advance of his ca- 
pacity. This, however, is so common a trait that it 
hardly placed him at a disadvantage in comparison with 
other mortals. Frank rowed us out to the yacht, and 
we immediately made sail, and, casting off the moorings, 
fell off before a southerly breeze. 

The wind was light, about sou'-sou'-west, but with 
the aid of the gaff-topsail and jib-topsail we fanned along slowly. After 
passing Kettle Cove the breeze began to freshen, and when we came abreast 
of Gloucester the " kites " were taken in. Standing out past Cape Ann and 
Milk Island, we sailed around Thatcher's Island, whose twin light-houses, 
towering one hundred and thirty feet, seem placed there like g.ant sentinels 
to guard the approach to the coast. The wind, as the day wore on, became 
verv stiff, with quite a " lump of a sea ;" but as the yacht was fairly skoo - 
mg» like a frightened steed, we hoped that we should be able to reach 
the Shoals before the wind should grow much stronger. The probability 
was that it was only a summer breeze, which might shift to the west- 
ward with a thunder squall, as it often does on the North Atlantic, and 



ISLES OF SHOALS. 207 

go down with the sun. If that proved to be the case, we could run for 
Portsmouth or Newburyport, for these shifts of the wind are generally 
well announced to the experienced eye. 

When we were about half-way between Cape Ann and the Shoals, 
we all went below to take some refreshments, leaving Frank in charge 
of the helm. Nearly the whole of the centre-board was up, and the 
sloop steered a little wildly ; but with a safe hand, there was no reason why 
she could not be left to his care alone, unless the wind should freshen. 
Notwithstanding the breeze, the day was warm, and it was wisely decided 
to prepare a mild brew suited to the occasion, and largely flavored with 
the pure juice of the lemon. 

"Now, this is what I call jolly," said Varney, with enthusiasm, reclin- 
ing on the cushion and affectionately regarding his glass. 

" It reminds me," said Bent, " of what Mohammed, father of the late 
Sultan, used to say when he quaffed lemonade in the gilded halls of the 
Seraglio. Holding up his jewelled goblet, brimming with lemonade cooled 
with the snows of Olympus, he would exclaim, "As I am the King of 
kings, so this is the king of drinks !" 

" Well, he knew what's good, that's evident," said Jim. 

" It reminds me," said Varney, " of when I was in the army. It was 
a blistering hot day ; we'd had a brush with the enemy the day before, 
and a rather lively time of it, as you may guess, for my horse was shot 
under me, and I had a ball through my hat that grazed my hair. Well, 
that's neither here nor there. What I was going to say was, that the 
colonel said to me, ' Varney, what do you say now to — ' " 

Varney did not finish his sentence, for on the instant the yacht, with- 
out the slightest warning, gave a tremendous lurch to starboard, lying 
over almost on her beam ends, the sea boiling furiously on deck, and 
pouring through the open dead-light of the trunk into the cuddy. Down 
went glasses, plates, and, in fact, everything movable in the cabin, in a 
broken and confused mess to leeward ; while Varney, with outstretched 
arms, pitched headlong into Joe's stomach and nearly squeezed the breath 
out of his body, Jim plunging in turn, with all his huge size and weight, 
on the three others. 

As soon as this crushed, mauled, and puffing pile of humanity could 
return to its individual parts, I scrambled to the companion-way, and, in 
the mildest terms that the circumstances would allow, demanded of Frank 
what he was trying to do with the yacht. 

"Oh, nothin'; I just thought I'd let her jibe, that's all," he answered, 
sulkily. 



20* 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 




whale's-back light. 



"You just thought you'd let her jibe, did you? You mean that you 
were not minding your business ; that's what's the matter. Any lubber 
could tell you that to jibe a sloop like this under such canvas, in such 
a breeze and such a sea, is just the way to carry away your main-boom 
or capsize the sloop." 

" If you think you can steer her any better, just you take the helm 
yourself!" Frank retorted, rising surlily and going forward. He was 
too conscious that it was sheer carelessness that had brought us so near 
a serious accident to say anything more in his defense. 

The Isles of Shoals were now rising rapidly, bine and beautiful, in the 
north. Another hour brought us close to them, and, rounding a reef on 
which the sea was breaking with vast masses of flashing foam, we stood 
in for the cove between Appledore and Star Island, where a number of 



ISLES OF SHOALS. 209 

yachts were lying. We also would have gladly selected a berth and come 
to anchor, for it looked very inviting on the islands. But the sky to 
windward was now very threatening. A grim thunder-storm was rolling 
up in the west, and all the yachts at the " Shoals " were making sail to run 
for a safe harbor at Portsmouth. Our yacht was therefore brought around 
on the port tack, and headed in the same direction, with the wind just 
abeam. It was a lively sight as we approached Whale's-back Light, sail 
after sail converging toward the mouth of the Piscataqua, and the black, 
scowling mass of clouds from the westward, streaked with lightning and 
muttering deep thunders, overarching the whole sky. The tide and cur- 
rent, both running out against the southerly sea, made quite a high, abrupt, 
and irregular chop; but the yacht, still under whole main-sail and jib, 
behaved beautifully. She was fairly under the lee of the land when a 
blinding flash and a deafening peal broke overhead, while a pelting sheet 
of rain and a powerful squall of wind struck the fleet of yachts. We were 
just in time; letting go the halyards, we rounded to and dropped anchor 
in a snug cove, in the midst of a crowd of small craft, and then ran below 
to escape the deluge which poured down. In half an hour the squall 
had gone off to leeward, the setting sun came out brilliantly, and a noble 
rainbow spanned the gloom of the retreating storm. 

On the following day the barometer foretold a gale of wind; and so, 
with the other yachts, we concluded to run farther up to Portsmouth, 
where we should And more to entertain us while waiting for good weather. 
The sloop easily stemmed the tortuous, eddying, rushing waters of the 
Piscataqua, and, successfully passing Pull-and-be-damned Point, where the 
currents and eddies are peculiarly trying to an unsanctified temper, we 
anchored in Portsmouth harbor, opposite the Navy-yard at Kittery. 

Some sixty or seventy yachts, many of them among the finest craft 
afloat, were clustered there, and it was a very brilliant sight, a spectacle 
full of inexhaustible interest, to one who has a passion for naval archi- 
tecture, and is smitten with the yachting fever — a passion which is born 
with a man, and leaves him only when he goes to a world where yachts 
and yachting are unknown. The ancient, storied, little city swarmed 
with yachtsmen in characteristic rig, and the coming race was a topic 
which afforded a common ground on which all could meet and talk until 
the wee sma' hours. To your true sailor, a love for ships and the sea 
affords a common bond of union not unlike that of freemasonry. The 
subject he has at heart is Sanscrit to the landsman, and the sea terms he 
uses are but unintelligible gibberish to all out of the guild. 

The gale of wind lasted two days, and was followed by a mild west- 

14 



210 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



erly breeze, and as fair a summer's day as ever shone on New England's 
shore. Nearly one hundred and forty yachts, large and small, collected 
at the Shoals, many of them drawn thither to witness the race which 
came off during the day. Of course, the Islands were thronged with vis- 




DUCK ISLAND, FROM APPLEDORE. 



itors, and it was indeed a gala-day at sea. One may well say " at sea," 
speaking of this cluster of islets, for they are all so small, the effect to one 
who lives on them is quite that of being " at sea," in the ordinary sense 
of the term. They are all mere rocks, none of them rising exactly to the 
dignity of islands, but they are generally placed so near together that sev- 
eral of them give the impression of forming one island. Were they more 
isolated and distinct, their minute dimensions would be more apparent. 
Their total area is less than one square mile. 

These islets were first discovered by Champlain, and later by Gosnold. 
Probably the first white man who visited them was Captain John Smith, 
who called them Smith's Isles, and so they appeared on the old charts for 
a while. Although much cannot be said in favor of the beauty of the 
name, it seems a pity that this indefatigable wanderer and explorer should 
not have had the satisfaction of attaching his name permanently on some 
one of the many spots he visited during his romantic career. The pres- 
ent name of the islands seems, in the absence of any definite information 
on the subject, to have been suggested by the clustering of so many rocks 
together, like a shoal or school of fish. 

Appledore, the largest of the group, is perhaps two-thirds of a mile 
long. It is divided into two portions by a valley and two inlets. There 



ISLES OF SHOALS. 



211 



is one tree on the isle, a venerable elm, attached to the piazza of the hotel. 
But although destitute of trees, like all the neighboring islets, Appledore 
is overgrown with the tangled meshes of blackberry, raspberry, and blue- 
berry vines ; and many richly tinted lichens clothe the rocks, while the 
sweet-scented bay breathes its fragrance on the summer air. The shores, 
as in all of these isles, are bare, composed of red granitic and trap rocks, 
beautifully harmonizing with the vivid hues of sea and sky on a clear day. 
Nature, however brilliant her colors, never allows her effects to be out 
of tone. Her magical atmosphere scumbles and glazes every object into 
unison with the landscape in which it appears. Although never very 
high, the cliffs of Appledore are often bold and uncompromising in the 
aspect which they present to the 
surges of easterly gales. South 
Gorge is a very striking bit of rock 
scenery, whose trap cliffs, eaten away 
by the battering surf of untold ages, 
actually overhang the sea. 

North of Appledore is Duck Isl- 
and, perhaps a mile distant. It is a 
low, uninhabited isle, surrounded by 
the Shag and Mingo rocks, and a 
net -work of reefs which seem laid 
to entrap unlucky vessels sailing by. 
Duck Island, Appledore, and the 
three adjoining islets belong to 
Maine, while the four southern isles 
form part of New Hampshire. This 
seems to be an absurd and unneces- 
sary geographical division. 

Appledore was the first to be set- 
tled, and until the close of the sev- 
enteenth century was occupied by 
a flourishing hamlet, including a 
church, and an academy of wide re- 
pute. But of all this nothing now 
remains but the site of a few houses 
and a cemetery. The old settlement 
had long passed away when the Hon. Henry B. Laighton, once- a member 
of the Legislature of New Hampshire, became weary of the haunts of men, 
and disgusted with his race. He sought and obtained the office of keeper 




212 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



of the IHit-house on White Island. After remaining there six years, he 
removedto Appledore, and there built himself a house, where he remained 
until his death. For twenty-five years this modern Timon gazed on the 




SOUTH-EAST END OF APPLEDORE, LOOKING SOUTH. 

main-land, but a few miles off, but never stepped foot on it again. He is 
buried on a knoll a few yards from the hotel which gradually grew up 
under his charge. From offering a shelter to the occasional visitors who 
sometimes sought the islands, he gradually became the proprietor of a 
lai-e and fashionable hotel, thronged by hundreds of guests. T his hotel 
is now under the charge of his two sons. His daughter, Mrs. Celia Thax- 
ter, the well-known poetess and historian of the Isles of Shoals, resides in 
a house adjoining the hotel. 

Small as are these isles, they have already given rise to a literature at 



ISLES OF SHOALS. 



213 



their own. Captain Smith and Cotton Mather have considerable to say 
about them in quaint and vigorous English. The town records of Gos- 
port, on Star Island, are entertaining, both as local history and specimens 
of English undetiled by the learning of the schools. Mr. Jenners and 
Mr. Chadwick, the poet, have both written capital historical and descriptive 
sketches of the islands. The ballads founded on the romantic scenes 
that have occurred on the Isles of Shoals have given Mrs. Thaxter a 
well-known position as a writer of picturesque verse, and have done much 
to invest the Isles of Shoals with that delicate veil of romance and legend, 
that air of sentiment and human interest, which add an indescribable 
charm to the attractions of natural scenery. It is not so much the actual 
man as the memory of his existence in a rural or sea solitude which en- 
hances the interest of a landscape. 

Smutty Nose, now called Haley's Island, is next in size to Appledore, 
which it adjoins. Its first name was derived from a dark-hued ledge 
that still bears the name. The rocks called Malaga and Cedar Isles are 
close to it, and, together with the breakwater between Haley's and Cedar, 
form the harbor of the Shoals, a commodious and tolerably safe port, ex- 
cept in gales from south-west to north-west. Haley's was named after 
Mr. Samuel Haley, one of the former inhabitants, who found, even on 
this minute theatre of action, room for the development of the noble 




HALEY S DOCK AND HOMESTEAD. 

(In the third house from the left the Wagner murder was committed.) 

qualities which mark the upright and public-spirited citizen. He built 
windmills to grind the grain, which grew more liberally on Haley's Island 
than on the other isles, and laid out a rope-walk. He was also a sheep 



214 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



and cattle grazer on a somewhat limited territory. But his memory is 
chiefly to be cherished because of his solicitude for the storm-tossed sailor. 
For many years a light shone in his window at night to warn the passing 




LEDGE OF ROCKS, HALEY'S ISLAND. 



ship away from those cruel rocks. He also built the breakwater with 
the proceeds of three bars of silver which he found under a cliff, doubt- 
less washed ashore from some hapless wreck, and he afterward added 
a wharf, which, although now in a dilapidated condition, affords a safe 
shelter for boats. Near his grave are the graves of the Spanish sailors 
of the ship Sagunto, which was wrecked in a winter snow-storm. Those 
who live on that bleak coast, and have often seen the terrible gloom and 
severity of a north-easterly storm in December, know well what must have 
been the sufferings of that ill-fated crew. Their nameless gravestones 
were erected by the sympathetic kindness of Mr. Haley, who now lies 
in turn at their side ; for to all mankind there is a common lot. Whether 
at sea or in port, all are wrecked at last. 

Haley's Island has acquired a melancholy celebrity within a few 
years by the awful tragedy of March, 1873. Louis Waguer had an idea 
that he should find money in the house of a Swedish family then liv- 
ing there. He rowed in the moonlight from Portsmouth, and stole un- 
noticed on the sleeping inmates, who suspected no danger in the quiet 
little isle, where only the seas seemed savage. Marie Christianson he mur- 
dered in the house. Annetta, her sister-in-law, who had escaped, half 
awake, through the window, was standing there, stupefied with horror, when 
he stealthily crept up behind her, and, with one blow of an axe, completed 
the bloody tragedy. Marie Hontvet, flying to the water, and waving her 
arms with frantic appeals, was seen by Ingebertsen, who flew to the rescue. 



ISLES OF SHOALS. 



215 



But Wagner escaped, and returned to Portsmouth. He rowed eighteen 
miles in a small boat between midnight and mid-day, murdered two wom- 
en, and tried to slaughter a third, and earned for all his trouble only 
sixteen dollars and the rope by which he was hanged. 

About the year 1700, Star Island became the seat of the capital of 
the Isles of Shoals, if we may so designate the village which arose there 
after the decay of the hamlet on Appledore. The new townlet was called 
Gosport, and tishing was carried on by the quarter of a thousand inhab- 
itants with such brisk enterprise, that by 1750 ships came to its little 
harbor from the Mediterranean ports, to load salt fish for Lenten days 
in foreign lands. Like the first Greeks and Romans, the founders of Gos- 
port were patterns of virtuous integrity, and the local code was severe, and 
was administered without regard to rank or sex. Joanne Ford received 
nine stripes, delivered with impartial vigor, in the presence of the municipal 
authorities in council assembled, because, as it is recorded, she had called 
the constable " horn-headed rogue, and cow-headed rogue." It is quite 
possible he had justly earned a right to these titles, and had not unlikely 
given her severe provocation ; but the law and its officers must, of course, 
be above insult. The success and wealth which attended the fisheries of 
Gosport seem, however, to have had the same effect on the jeimesse dorte 
of this populous seaport that prosperity usually produces in all large cities. 




SMUTTY NOSE. 



Riotous living became too common ; the Decalogue, as a guide- for practice, 
fell into disuse; and, what seemed quite as bad at that time, the inhabitants 
were proved guilty of giving aid and comfort to the British and the Tories 



216 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

at the outbreak of the Revolution. They were ordered to leave the isl- 
ands, and the census of Gosport fell suddenly from 284 to 44 individuals. 
The proprietors of the large hotel which now occupies the former site 
of Gosport bought out the few remaining inhabitants, and their cottages 




OLD CHURCH, STAR ISLAND. 



have been turned into tenement houses, which are leased to visitors when 
their number is too large to find accommodation in the hotel. On the 
barren, broken, rock -strewn hill, the culminating point of Star Island, 
stands the old church of Gosport, a stone structure thirty-six feet by 
twenty-four on the outside ; the walls are two feet thick. A vane crowns 
the steeple, which was considered elaborately ornamental and costly by 
those who put it there. It was also used as a storehouse for salt fish on 
week-days ; sometimes it was left there during the hours of service. 

Gosport was like other towns, large and small, in one respect. They 
all have their graveyards. Gosport is now one of the towns that have 
ceased to be, and the place where it stood knoweth it no more. But there, 
on the western side of Star Island, facing the setting sun, and washed by 
the moaning sea, its lonely graves remain to tell of those who, ages ago, 
lived and toiled, and loved, and suffered, and sinned, or triumphed over 
sin, on Star Island. And there they may yet repose for centuries to come, 
if the sacrilegious visitor, or the grasping money-seeker, does not invade 
that little cemetery, which seems to have been left in trust to the genera- 
tions yet to be. 

Near the eastern end of Star Island stands a monument erected to 



ISLES OF SHOALS. 



217 



Captain " John Smith, the Discoverer of these Isles," as the inscription 
runs. It was placed there by the islanders, and cannot be justly con- 
sidered either classical or graceful in design. Three steps are surmounted 
by a pedestal that supports a triangular marble column, which is in turn 
crowned by three Turks' heads, or, rather, three heads were once there ; 
but wind, weather, and vandalism have made sad work of two of them. 
Captain Smith was justly proud of his exploit in shearing off the heads 
of three Turks in his Hungary campaign, and this monument is a tribute 
to the lively satisfaction with which he regarded that pleasant incident 
in his varied career. 

The annals of the Isles of Shoals include two other names of local 
note, the Rev. Mr. Tucke and the Rev. Mr. Brock, both good Puritans. 
Mather has somewhat to say of the latter, who seems to have been a 
strong, quaint, sincere, decided character, well adapted to deal with the 
weather-worn fishermen and broad-shouldered fish- wives of his insular 
parish. In the "Magnalia" we read that one of the fishermen, who had 
often ferried the people across the cove to church, lost his boat in a 




CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH'S MONUMENT, STAR ISLAND. 



storm. When he informed Mr. Brock of his misfortune, he 'suggested 
that an overruling Providence did not seem to have taken his pious ser- 
vices into sufficient consideration, or he would not have been repaid by the 



21S 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



loss of his boat. " Go home contented, good sir," said Mr. Brock ; " I'll 
mention it to the Lord. You may expect to find your boat to-morrow." 




GORGE, STAR ISLAND. 



The next day the boat floated to the surface, brought up by the flake of a 
ship's anchor. The angel delegated to recover the boat may have gone 
down and fixed the point of the anchor-flnke inside of the gunwale, just 




WHITE ISLAND LIGHT. 



ISLES OF SHOALS. 



219 



as they catch the mutton-fish in the West Indies, which is said to be so 
sluggish that divers descend and put the hook into its mouth. 

The frequent wrecks on the Isles of Shoals have naturally caused more 
or less treasure to be washed up on the rocks. Even as early as the time 
of Captain Smith coins had begun to be found occasionally, sometimes in 
the mouths of fish ; and the Indians told as exaggerated stories about it as 
the Indians farther south related to Columbus about the gold in the West 



r}iML few* USPS 



iiliil 




CLIFFS, WHITE ISLAND. 



Indies. The following exquisite passage from the worthy captain's jour- 
nal will match what he said about the spiders of Bermuda : 

"And is it not a pretty sport to pull up twopence, sixpence, and twelve- 
pence as fast as one can bate or veare a line ? The salvages compare the 
store in the sea to the hairs upon their heads; and surely there is an in- 
credible abundance of them upon the coast." 



220 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



The scenery of Star Island — if one may apply that terra to an islet 
scarce half a mile long — is broken and rugged, and rising at each end. 




COVERED WALK AND LIGHT-HOUSE, WHITE ISLAND. 



The most remarkable spot in its warm gray cliffs is the Gorge, formed by 
untold ages of breakers thundering against it before ever man appeared 
on the wild New England shore. The magnificent picture, entitled " The 
Breaking up of a Storm on Star Island," painted by Mr. M. F. H. de Haas, 
is a grand representation of the rocks of this island in a roaring north- 
easter. 

Due east from Star Island, half a mile distant, is Londoner, a low, 
bare, nn inhabited rock; the ruins of one small dwelling still remain upon 
it. At the north-western end lies a most cruel reef, over which the surf 
rolls with terrific grandeur. 

A quarter of a mile south of Londoner is White Island. The north- 



ISLES OF SHOALS. 



221 



em part of it is called Seavey's Island, because a high tide sometimes 
overflows the neck which joins them. White Island proper is a grim, 
stubborn rock, sturdily breasting the Atlantic surges, and is by no means 
the least interesting of the group. Its rugged, abrupt, deeply furrowed 
form, and the perpendicular face it shows to the south, give to it a sav- 
age wildness and grandeur out of proportion with its actual dimensions. 
On the summit of its highest point, eighty feet above the water, stands 
the light -house which has been rendered famous by the graphic muse 
of Mrs. Thaxter, whose girlhood was spent on White Island. It is a solid 
stone structure, picturesquely harmonizing with the scene of which it is 
the central object. The lamp is a Fresnel light of the first class, and 
cost thirty thousand dollars. The violence of the sea when it bursts on 
White Island may be judged from the fact that the heavy covered walk, 
over a hundred feet long, was once washed completely away, and, rushing 
down the gorge, was crushed and swept out to sea. 

The Isles of Shoals entirely merit the reputation they have acquired. 
In a space under six hundred acres they offer manifold attractions to the 
invalid, the artist, or the pleasure-seeker. A residence there possesses the 
tonic qualities of a sea-voyage ; and as for hay fever, the unhappy victim 
who has vainly sought freedom from an affliction which has destroyed so 
many a fair summer's sport may calmly sit on the piazza at Appledore or 
Star Island, and, while he smokes his cigar with serene exultation, can 
laugh to scorn the relentless demon who watches on the opposite coast, 
unable to cross the sea, but waiting to seize him again when he once more 
leaves the Isles of Shoals. 




LONDONER, FROM STAR ISLAND. 



222 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



CHAPTER XII. 

CAPE BRETON ISLAND. 

IT was late in October that I arrived on the coast of Cape Breton, in the 
good bark Ethan Allen, from Madeira. The exceptionally favorable 
winds we had enjoyed now left ns, and it was only after battling with 
heavy squalls, and gales, and adverse currents for several days, at the en- 
trance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, that we succeeded in making the port 
for which we were bound, and we were quite able after that to realize 
why insurance premiums are doubled after October sets in on all vessels 
sailing for that inhospitable coast. It took all day to beat up the long, 
narrrow entrance to Sydney harbor, and we passed a steamer which had 
gone on the bar in a storm which had forced us to stand out to sea two 
days before. The prospect was rendered somewhat dismal by a crowd 
of damaged vessels which had been wholly or partially wrecked in the 
appalling hurricane of the previous August. Of Sydney little can be said 
that is inviting. The lay of the land is very much that of our own New 
England, but vegetation is more sparse, and the general appearance of the 
landscape more sad and sere. The bay is spacious and well protected, af- 
fording several excellent harbors for ordinary weather ; but the town pre- 
sents a singular blending of squalor and thrift, the former being the first 
feature to impress the stranger on landing. Shanties and groggeries, dis- 
reputable to a degree, abound, and lead one to think he has fallen on some 
maritime Laramie or Cheyenne ; while to the westward new houses, glory- 
ing in the tawdriness of white paint, green shutters, and flimsy verandas, 
indicate that the place is not altogether going to the dogs. Coal is the 
chief stock in trade, and the supply is apparently inexhaustible ; the whole 
island is, in fact, intersected by seams of the black mineral. The veins 
run under the harbor at Sydney, and are worked to a considerable depth. 
The population is, consequently, mining, combined with a large floating 
class of fishermen and seamen, ever ready to "splice the main-brace" and 
chuck the rosy girls of Cape Breton under the chin. It must be added 
that they do not always stop there, and street brawls, as may be easily im- 



CAPE BRETON ISLAND. 



223 



agined, are not uncommon. It is difficult to fancy any one lyino- awake 
o' nights sighing for Sydney. 

This port has of late years become a great resort for our mackerel fish- 
ermen. It is not far from Cape North, one of the fishing-grounds, and 
the fish are also found toward the close of the season off the harbor. Sev- 
enty of our schooners made Sydney a rendezvous during the previous 




%o^; 



FISHERMEN CRUISING. 



summer, and it is indeed a stirring and beautiful spectacle to see the 
graceful little craft dodging up and down the long entrance to the harbor, 
or darting hither and thither in white groups, like sea-fowl, in search of 
schools of mackerel. So fascinated was I by the sight of these schooners, 
that, on finding my bark was not going to return to Boston, I at once de- 
cided to get passage in one of the schooners, if possible, in preference to 



224 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

the steamer. Fortune seemed to favor me. The skipper of the Anna 
Maria came aboard to bring us some fresh mackerel, and told us he was 
to start the following morning for home, going, for the first time, by way 
of the Bras d'Or, which I had long wished to see. He kindly offered me 
a bunk, and a share of grub for myself and dog. I jumped at the pro- 
posal, and early the next day took my traps aboard ; we peaked the main- 
sail, tripped the anchor, and stood out to sea. The Anna Maria was 
twenty-four years old, forty-one tons burden, and had a small forecastle 
and a diminutive trunk-cabin aft; five men slept forward, and there were 
six of us, or seven, including a dog, in the cuddy. The deck was lumbered 
up with a quantity of fish-barrels and tubs, and the whole vessel was in an 
unmentionable state of dirtiness, resulting from twelve weeks of fishing. 

There are two entrances to the remarkable sea-lake called the Bras 
d'Or, which separates Cape Breton Island into two nearly equal portions. 
Within a short time a canal, scarcely half a mile long, has been cut 
through the isthmus, permitting the passage of vessels of small burden. 
It is about sixty miles from the canal to the two eastern straits or en- 
trances. The southern entrance is impassable except for steamers and 
boats. We struck for the northern passage, called the Great Bras d'Or, 
having a leading wind, without which it is impossible for a sailing vessel 
to pass in. The navigable channel is very narrow, the tide rims through 
it like a mill-race, and, for the first few miles, any vessel getting ashore 
there is exposed to the full sweep of easterly gales. 

There were seven schooners in company with us, all keeping so closely 
together that the bowsprit of one would almost overhang the taffrail of 
the next one; sometimes one would becalm another, and thus shoot by. 
Finally, one of the schooners got slued aside on a bank, and had to be 
left behind, to get off as she could. Happily for the rest, a pilot appeared 
at this juncture in a dory, and agreed to pilot the little fleet. He carried 
us as far as Kelly's Cove, when, fog and twilight both coming on, we all 
dropped anchor, and the pilot proceeded to levy toll before leaving us for 
the night. He was a curious specimen of the genus Bretoniemis. Keep- 
ing his eyes always down, while he hung on to the side of the vessel, he 
rattled away with great volubility, which was evidently increased by the 
bad whiskey he had taken before coming off to us. " I don't care for any 
bluidy silver. A little bluidy pork or beef, a little bluidy salt or bluidy 
jigs, you don't want any more, my hearties, or any other bluidy thing will 
do me jist exactly as well. I should be only too glad to take such a pretty 
schooner through them narrows for nothink, but don't ye sees, we can't do 
nothink for nothink in Cape Breton no more than nowheres else ? And 



CAPE BKETON ISLAND. 



225 



that's the truth. That'll do, that'll do. I don't want ye to rob yourselves. 
Fish-bait? no, got enough of the bluidy thing. There's no need of my 
coining off to ye the mornin' : all ye've got to do is jist to keep that p'int 
close aboard, and ye'll be all right ; and remimber them two spar-buoys on 
the starboard beam, and one on the port, and there ain't no other bluidy 
thing in the channel that the likes o' ye need to be afeard of; and I'm 





TALL FISHING. 



very much obleeged to ye, gintlemen, and I wish ye a pleasant v'yage ;" 
and off he went to repeat the farce at the next schooner. 

We found ourselves anchored for the night in Kelly's Cove, under 
Kelly's Mountain, the highest land on the Bras d'Or. It is an isolated 
ridge, which I estimated to be about twelve hundred feet high, but so bold 
as to resemble a wall, and give an impression of greater height. Evidences 
of the tremendous hurricane of the previous September were everywhere 

15 



226 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

visible. The wind had felled the largest forest trees in ranks mile after 
mile, or, where the squalls had been most violent, had cut swaths through 
the woods as the scythe of the mower lays the grass. This was the case 
all through the Bras d'Or. Many houses and barns were felled or injured ; 
at Arichat sixty houses were blown down. Vessels were everywhere de- 
stroyed ; all through the trip we came across wrecks on shore. 

The boat was lowered, and skipper and I went ashore on a foraging 
expedition among the farm-houses. We found the people generally were 
" Heelanders," as they called themselves, among whom Gaelic is still the 
vernacular, some actually being unable to converse in English. The} 7 
were mostly Roman Catholics. We finally brought up at a small house, 
where we spent a couple of hours chatting before an old-fashioned ingle- 
side, over whose bright blaze the kettle was singing. A dance at a farm- 
house farther on was proposed, and skipper offered to bring off the 
schooner's fiddler to stimulate the heels and quicken the hearts of the lads 
and lassies ; but, owing to the lateness of the hour, the plan unfortunately 
fell through. A brace of geese and a pail of milk were the results of our 
expedition. It was so dark that the buxom hostess snatched a brand from 
the hearth, and gave it to us by way of lantern, and we thus reached the 
boat without spilling the milk. 

We were again under way the next morning, but the wind was so 
light we made but little progress. The good weather was improved to 
clear the deck and clean the vessel. We passed some plaster-cliffs, which 
furnish material for many of the best ceilings in our cities, and add a 
striking feature to the scenery. We also had a fine view up the Little 
Bras d'Or, and left the shire town of Baddeck on our right, at the bottom 
of a deep bay. At night we again anchored, at Grand Narrows, and skip- 
per and I repeated our foraging expedition. We were lucky enough to 
come across some very nice people, bearing the famous names of M'Niel 
and M'Donald. The next morning, just after we hove up anchor, a boat 
overtook us, bringing a supply of milk and eggs from our friends of 
the previous evening, which very materially added to the slender stock of 
pork, beans, and molasses, that constituted the commissariat of the Anna 
Maria. But generally the people are a pretty rough set, with a decided 
talent for brawling and drinking. When we were going aboard at night, 
we came across three sturdy fellows, well braced with gin, and altogether 
too willing to fire off the guns they carried to make them pleasant com- 
panions, especially as they seemed inclined to pick a quarrel. But evad- 
ing them in the dark, we were the first to reach the boat, beached under 
cover of some rushes, and shoved off for the schooner. 



CAPE BRETON ISLAND. 



227 



After leaving Grand Narrows, the passage widened into a broad lake 
some twenty miles across at the widest, deeply indented with bays, and 
studded with large islands. Fish and game abound there. While we 
were becalmed, signs of mackerel appeared, and all hands got out their 
lines, and each man took his allotted place by the side of the vessel ; but, 
after a few minutes of spirited sport, the fish left us, and a breeze sprung 




RIDING OUT A NORTH-EASTER. 



up and fanned us along through the afternoon. To the sportsman, few 
places offer greater attractions than the Bras d'Or, in summer and early 
autumn. At sundown the fleet was becalmed in the middle of tlje lake, 
which was glowing and magnificent beyond description, under the splen- 
dor of a sunset of extraordinary beauty and variety of tint and hue. As I 
gazed, entranced, on that spectacle, I did not wonder that they called that 
sea strait, so rarely combining lake and river, the Bras d'Or. Golden was 



22S 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



the autumnal glory of its shores, golden were its waters, and golden the 
tranquil sky which overhung and imparted to it half its wealth of beauty. 
The shooting-stars and the night-breeze came together, and we watch- 

O O o J 




THE JIICMAC INDIANS. 



ed the one and glided gently along before the other, until at midnight we 
again n eared dangerous navigation, and came to an anchor. On the fol- 
lowing day we passed a noted Indian settlement, where there is a large 
church with some wigwams. The Indians of this region assemble in 
spring and summer on their island, and attempt to keep up the dances 
and other ceremonies peculiar to their ancestors. 

The scenery now became exceedingly romantic and beautiful, often 
resembling the Thousand Islands, and the region .is so little inhabited as 
scarcely to seem a country that has been settled for two hundred years. 
Islands of all sizes, sometimes mere knolls tufted with birches and pines, 
divide the lake into numerous winding channels for a long distance. The 
ship-channel is often so narrow and tortuous that it was with great diffi- 
culty that even our short schooners, capable of turning within their own 
lengths, could be worked without going ashore. One of them here ran 
her nose into a mud-bank, on which w r e also touched, and so firmly that 
she lay there several days. 

Just before evening the Anna Maria, heading the fleet, reached the 
canal at St. Peter's. In an hour she w T as again on the Atlantic; but so 
difficult is the way out into the harbor, that we grounded on a rock in a 
dangerous situation. 

While we were getting her off, a party of Indians landed close under 
our lee, and in a very few minutes they had put up several bark wigwams, 
and the dusky shades of evening were rendered picturesque by the smoky 
gleams of their fires. The little cove where we were lying, the forests on 



CAPE BRETON ISLAND. 



229 



one side and the wigwams and strange forms moving before the light and 
reflected in the water; the last lingering rays of sunset on the other side 
vividly outlining the rakish spars of the pinks rocking in the port; the' 
splash and swing of warps in the water; the quick movement of boats 
here and there, with phosphorescent drops twinkling on the oars; the 
shadow of the spars, and the tread of feet on the deck, as schooner 'after 
schooner warped past us in the starry gloom— presented a singular and 
effective scene. 

Early the next morning we worked out of St. Peter's by Madame Isl- 




ONE OF THE FISHERMAN'S PERILS. 



and. The threatening character of the weather inclined us to go into 
Arichat, but a land-breeze sprung up after sunset. All night we flew be- 
fore it under press of sail, and by next morning had run one hundred and 



230 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

forty miles, and were abreast of Halifax. On the following day our good 
weather came to an end. A gale was coming on, and, after pounding 
against a heavy sea several hours and starting a leak, we were just able to 
work into Shelburne, where we lay three days. Shelburne possesses the 
finest harbor in Nova Scotia. What is also in its favor is, that it is easy of 
access, and is often made a harbor of refuge. The settlement is, however, 
but a wretched makeshift for a town, like many places in the Eastern prov- 
inces, but has considerable ship-building, which gives it some appearance 
of thrift. It also abounds with herring, which are eaten in such quantities 
by the Bluenoses, that it is said of them they cannot pull off their shirts in 
spring because of the fish-bones sticking through their skin ! The weather 
was still dubious when we put to sea in company with fifteen sail, all 
bound to the westward, but we hoped the easterly wind would hold to 
take us across the Bay of Fundy, the worst bit of navigation, owing to its 
fogs, rips, reefs, tides, and currents, to be found anywhere on the coast of 
North America. But, in fact, nowhere does a close inspection of the 
ledges along the Nova Scotia shore inspire one with agreeable sensations, 
nor are such names as Ironbound or Ragged Harbor pleasingly suggestive. 
I never can pass that forbidding coast without thinking of some grim 
monster showing his teeth, ready to crunch the bones of hapless victims. 
The vigor with which the new Dominion has assumed the reins of govern- 
ment is nowhere more evident than in the increased attention bestowed 
on light-houses, which have hitherto been infamously scarce, considering 
the character of the coast, and have been badly kept and lighted. 

During the day we passed a large ship, high and dry on a reef, going 
to pieces. The wind freshened at night, and we stood across the Bay of 
Fundy in fine style. The next morning it was thick and nasty, blowing a 
gale of wind, with a heavy following sea. Wing and wing we " kihooted " 
before it under a press of sail such as only our fishermen indulge in. The 
least carelessness of the steersman might have sent us to the bottom. "A 
man must have his life insured who sails on the Anna Maria to-day, 1 ' 
said one to me. At noon a violent squall obliged us to take in sail. With 
some difficulty, we took in the mainsail, and, jibing the foresail, brought 
the lively little craft around just in time to get control of her, laying her 
half under water as she came up to the wind. We ran till night under 
close-reefed foresail, and then hove to near Cashe's Ledge till morning. 
Then the wind shifted into south-west, and finally came howling out of 
the north-west, and, as the skipper forcibly expressed it, " it everlastingly 
screeched." We had but one suit of sails ; they were old and worn, and 
the foresail split and gave us some trouble; our stock of provisions was 



CAPE BRETON ISLAND. 231 

running low, and there was some reason to fear we should be blown to the 
eastward again. Generally, our fishermen fare very well, frequently lay- 
ing in fresh provisions at the ports they visit. One of the crew is usually 
chosen as cook, and receives, like the captain, a double share of the catch. 
But the staple article of diet is pork and beans — a very savory dish if 
properly cooked. This gave rise to the story of a fishing-schooner, which 
was sighted flying a flag of distress by a ship standing out to sea. They 
ran down, and hailed her. The skipper replied that the schooner was 
still one day's sail from port, and had only one barrel of beans on board. 

During all these days the spinning of yarns went on without intermis- 
sion fore and aft, and I gained new ideas of the constant and almost in- 
credible perils to which our fishermen are exposed, especially on the 
Georges and off the Magdalen Islands. Many a hair-breadth escape from 
being run down in the fog, or from foundering, was narrated. One of our 
crew had been on board a schooner which turned completely bottom up, 
and righted on the other side, when riding out a gale on the Georges 
Shoals. He was on the lookout, and, seeing an immense wave coming, 
pulled the slide over the companion-way and rushed below. Almost im- 
possible as it seems, it is recorded as a true story in the fishing annals of 
Cape Ann. Euchre and checkers, which were played on a board carved 
on the top of a locker, and the whittling of knick-knacks, went on along 
with the spinning of yarns. It was interesting to see how, through it all, 
these hardy fellows managed to retain characteristics purely human ; for 
example, the habit of croaking, and of finding fault with those on whom 
the responsibility devolved. Did the skipper carry sail hard, they said he 
did not know when to take it in ; did he prudently seek to spare the only 
suit of canvas we had, or avoid running on the land in the fog, they said, 
" The worst fault a master of a ship can have is to take sail in too soon." 
Like unwhipped school-boys, they thought they knew everything, and, like 
sailors in general, exercised little foresight or prevision for contingencies. 
Of course, on a vessel where all sailed on shares, any regular discipline 
was out of the question, the authority of the skipper being nearly nominal, 
the man making it rather than receiving it from the office. 

Our skipper was a man of the most imperturbable good-humor, but a 
good seaman, shrewdly adapting himself to the unruly spirits he had to 
deal with, and generally exercising control without appearing to do so. 
" Come on, bullies, let's take a turn on the main sheet," was the usual form 
of an order ; or, " Keep her off a little mite, Uncle Mike !" 

The watch usually consisted of two men, one at the wheel, and the 
other acting as lookout, and oscillating between the stove in the cabin and 



232 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



the bows, with a strong gravitation toward the former. The clock for- 
ward was half an hour ahead of the one aft; I don't know whether the 
fact was generally known, but I think it was known to some : I observed 
that some of the watches were shorter than others. 

One night, two of the leading faultfinders were directed to tack ship 

in their watch, there being a heavy 
sea running at the time. Three times 
these self-sufficient fellows tried to 
bring the schooner about; three times 
they failed, mouthing enormous impre- 
cations, and with such frequent men- 
tion of hell that I fancied I could 
smell brimstone. The skipper, mean- 
time, quietly lay in his bunk, and en- 
joyed the discomfiture of his defamers. 
At last he put his head up the com- 
panion-way and said, "Your jib is 
eased off too much ; haul down the 
jib, and she'll come around all right!" 
They obeyed, and the schooner was off 
on the other tack at once. He said 
nothing more, but an hour after went 
on deck himself, and tacked ship with 
the ease of a man who knows what he is about. The men could say not a 
word. 

Another curious trait among sailors, especially noticeable among those 
so little. under discipline as our fishermen, is the way they act in emer- 
gencies. The vessel, perhaps, is threatened by a heavy squall, and sail 
must be taken off at once, or the gravest consequences may ensue in a 
moment. One would suppose, therefore, that when the lives of all on 
board, including the crew themselves, are imperilled, and the quick orders 
of the captain summon all hands on deck without delay, they would need 
no further urging. Not a bit of it. The first thing they do is to grum- 
ble. " D — the weather ! what the devil does he want to hurry a fel- 
low out of his bunk for?" Then they will not stir till they have arranged 
their oil-suit, as if it were a dress suit for a ball ; after that, some of them 
must fill and light their pipes ! If the captain puts his head down and 
repeats the order, " Come out of there, and don't be all day about it !" 
they mutter, "D — d if I will before I'm ready!" This does not result 
from superior courage or recklessness so much as from a species of pig- 




CAPE BRETON ISLAND. 233 

headedness or habit ; for the same men will be as much appalled as other 
men by danger when they fairly realize it, or if it be in a form to which 
they are unaccustomed. 

We managed, in the teeth of a violent wind, to beat up as far as Cape 
Elizabeth, where we found the water a little smoother. But we should 
have kept on and made a harbor in the Sheepscot River, if the wind had 
not moderated after sunset, so as to enable us to work down to the Isles 
of Shoals, which we passed at daybreak. As we neared the destined port, 
razors and blacking -brushes were brought out of hidden corners, and a 
general burnishing followed. Those who had "boiled shirts" actually 
went through a transformation, when they put them on in exchange for 
their heavy blue or red woollen shirts. It took us the rest of the day to 
beat into Gloucester under a press of canvas, with a foot of water in our 
lee scuppers, and carrying away the maintopmast- staysail as we came 
abreast of Norman's Woe. 

The good old Anna Maria laid her bones on Newburyport bar two 
years. after, in 1877, and poor Captain Jewett has met the fisherman's fate 
on the Grand Banks. 



23i 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



AN evening in an enchanted region, gliding over an enchanted sea 
toward an enchanted isle, was the fair night when first I approached 
the far-famed isle of beauty which lies on the South of England's shore. 
The stately line of battle-ships of other days, their long tiers of port-holes 
lit up and reflected in the still waters of Portsmouth, lent magic to the 
scene. Out of the starry gloom beyond, ghost -like yachts, one by one, 

silently stole by, fanned by the low 
sea-wind. The strains of martial 
music floated out to sea, now rising, 
now falling, in harmonious cadences, 
and, as we glided across Spithead 
strait, a calcium-light suddenly burst 
at intervals across the night, like a 
noiseless explosion of a powder-mag- 
azine, revealing the secrets of the 
darkness, and as suddenly conceal- 
ing them again. The lights of the 
island we were approaching con- 
stantly grew more and more dis- 
tinct, wavering on the glassy floor 
of the still water, and the dark out- 
lines of woods and hills became less 
spectral and mysterious, until, almost before we were aware, we were 
making fast to a pier, and stepping ashore on the Isle of Wight. 

By the Romans the island was called " Yectis," by the Saxons 
" Wihtea," by the Celts " Gwyth," which means channel ; and thus re- 
duced to its original sense, the name literally means the Channel Island. 
By seamen it is called " the Wight." Well, after much wandering among 
other isles of the sea, I had at last arrived at " the Wight," and fortunate- 
ly, as I found when daylight came, had been first introduced to it at Ryde, 




L I S II C S -A 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



235 



which is a fitting vestibule through which to enter the island. In former 
years, before the building of the pier, Ryde was accessible from the sea 
scarce twelve hours out of the twenty-four, owing to the long stretch of 




muddy flats which lie more or less exposed at low water. Passengers 
often had to be landed, like poor Fielding, the inimitable author of "Tom 
Jones," on the backs of sailors. Later, a cart was substituted ; and, finally, 
a pier was built. This, proving too short, was eventually carried out into 
deep water to a distance of half a mile. There it terminates in a covered 
platform, from which an extensive and satisfying prospect is obtained of 
the northern coast of the island, from Seaview Point to Cowes, of which 
the central object is Ryde itself, reposing on a gentle slope embowered 
in civilized masses of patrician verdure. To the northward and eastward 
lie the shores of the main-land, and the ships and roofs of Portsmouth. 
Around this pier-end the prettiest, sauciest, most bewitching of yachts 
collect during the season, so in love with their own beauty that of a calm, 
pleasant morning they, swan-like, gaze at themselves reflected in the bur- 
nished mirror of the bay. There, too, full-cheeked musicians blow magi- 
cal strains beneath the silent moon, and the fairest dames and damosels, 
and the most high-mettled aristocrats of Rotten Row, in the jauntiest of 



236 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

summer or yachting rigs, collect in enraptured pairs to repeat the old story 
which Jessica and Lorenzo rehearsed in Yenice ages ago. Amidst this 
romantic throng may be detected sometimes the thoroughly prosaic form 
of your genuine cockney, and the stocky, broad-collared, and wide-trou- 
sered figure of an old tarpaulin gazing knowingly to seaward, or elbow- 
ing the crowd with the rolling movement of a heavy-laden ship running 
before a gale of wind. 

Ryde Pier is one of the rarest spots in Old England. Ryde town is 
also a charming place of residence, presenting lanes hidden in shrubbery 
and flowers, and cosy, often elegant, cottages at every turn. It also pos- 
sesses a yacht-club building and an art academy. A certain rustic, prim- 
itive simplicity seemed to me, however, to cling to it still when I heard 
the town-crier going about the streets in a dog-cart, ringing a bell, and 
shouting, "A large and valuable collection of water-color paintings will be 

sold to-day, at No. Street." But Ryde is fast losing its insular 

rusticity, and is, I fear, degenerating more and more into a vast congeries 
of boarding-houses and hotels, with placards in every window, and fees 
from a ha'penny upward, payable to every one of whom you ma}' happen 
to ask a simple question. There is a museum at Ryde worth visiting. It 
contains local antiquities and relics, including the ossuary remains of the 
monks and founders of Quarr Abbey, which once stood a couple of miles 
west of Ryde. It was a wealthy corporation, owning lands in most parts 
of the island. The inmates waxed fat on the revenues, were noted for 
their sharp practices, and for disturbing the domestic peace of the neigh- 
borhood b} 7, a lax interpretation of the seventh commandment. At any 
rate, the reputation of the abbey was not savory. Founded by Redvers de 
Baldwin, lord of the isle in 1132, it was abolished by Henry VIII. Little 
now remains to mark the site of Quarr Abbey ; but stone coffins have from 
time to time been revealed, and the spot is still haunted by certain char- 
acteristic legends. It is claimed that a wood near the abbey, called El- 
eanor's Grove, after the queen of Henry II., was often visited by her dur- 
ing her imprisonment at Quarr. After her death she was buried there in 
a coffin of gold, which is guarded from the cupidity of an unregenerate 
generation by the potent spell of a magician. 

The Isle of Wight is divided into two grand geological divisions — the 
tertiary eocene, and the cretaceous, or chalk, formation. The former in- 
cludes the northern half of the island, the latter the southern half. On 
the southern coast are also two narrow, isolated strips of wealden strata. 
In point of scenery, the southern portion is by far the grandest and most 
various in its aspects, and toward that, therefore, I first directed my steps 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



237 



on leaving Byde. In former years, the stage-coach was the only and the 
all-sufficient public conveyance for the traveller who did not care to see 
this fair isle on foot. But the vast and constantly increasing number of 
tourists who overrun the island has caused the construction of two minia- 
ture railways, soon to be succeeded by others, until ultimately an iron net- 
work shall weave its meshes over the idyllic vales of Wight. But the 
pedestrian will always find the old charming lanes and stiles, and prefer 
thus to see some of the choicest nooks of the island. It is a pleasant 
morning stroll to Brading, passing by the spot where were laid the bod- 
ies raised from the Royal George. 
Midway between Portsmouth and 
the Isle of Wight, not a century ago, 
the brave old line-of-battle ship heel- 
ed over in a breeze, and went down 
at her anchorage with twice five 
hundred souls on board. Kempen- 
felt, the admiral, was lost, with his 
flag-ship ; and Cowper gave immor- 
tality to this tragedy of the sea in 
a few famous lines. A buoy now 
marks the spot where the Royal 
George lies — the sands of the sea 
choking up her port -holes, and the 
monsters of the deep toying with her 
mighty skeleton. 

Brading, a quaint little town, lies 
at the head of Brading Haven, a 
lake-like cove, embayed among love- 
ly hills and groves — a most charming 
scene, except at low water. A stone- 
cased well in the centre of the port shows that it was once dry land. To 
the outside world Brading is known chiefly as the home of little Jane, the 
Young Cottager, whose simple and pious life was described by the Bev. 
Legh Kichmond. Her rustic cottage still stands in a green lane at the 
bottom of Brading Down, and her grave, in the south-east corner of the 
village church-yard, has been visited by scores of thousands. Legh Bich- 
mond, who was pastor here in the early part of this century, not only 
achieved a wide fame by his pathetic rural narratives, entitled"' The An- 
nals of the Poor," but also wrought an influence for good hardly equalled 
by any other religious writer since the time of John Bunyan. 




GRATE OF THE YOUNG COTTAGER. 



23S 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



But Brading has other points of interest. The church, which has re- 
cently been most carefully restored, is undoubtedly of very ancient date. 
It is known that a church existed here as early as 704, in which Bishop 

Wilfrid baptized the first Christian 
convert of the island ; and there 
seems nothing to disprove the fact 
that the present building either con- 
tains certain portions of that primi- 
tive chapel, or was erected on its site 
at a remote period. Half-way down 
the long street of Brading is an open 
space where bull-baiting was former- 
ly enjo}*ed by the island swains ; the 
ring to which the bull was made fast 
is still fixed in the centre of the spot. 
A well-worn pair of stocks are yet 
shown in front of the venerable town- 
hall, and some of the diamond-case- 
mented cottages exhibit the rings to 
which tapestries were suspended on 
festal days of yore. 

South of Brading, on the Ventnor 
Railway, is Sandown, which gives its name to the most beautiful bay in 
the whole island. As a residence, it is chiefly attractive for its sands, ad- 
mirably adapted for bathing. But to the lover of nature they are sadly 
marred by the inevitable rows of bathing-machines, which largely neutral- 
ize the effect of the coast scenery at most of the English and French wa- 
tering-places. The Culver Cliffs, perpendicular walls of chalk washed by 
the blue sea, add majesty to the lovely sweep of Sandown Bay. That 
notoriously eccentric demagogue of the last century, John Wilkes, owned 
a " villakin," as he sportively called it, at Sandown, where he spent the 
last years of his life. The grounds were curiously decorated with gro- 
tesque pavilions and imitations of classic tombs, inscribed to those he most 
admired — not excluding himself. A pillar, embowered in shrubbery, bore 
the epitaph, " Carolo Churchill, divino poeta, amico jucmAo, civi ojrtime 
de jyatria merito — To Charles Churchill, the divine poet, the genial 
friend, the citizen who has deserved well of his country." 

But Shanklin, reputed the loveliest of the lovely villages of the isle, 
drew me by its fame from Sandown — Shanklin, sung by poets and haunt- 
ed by artists. Keats says, "Shanklin is a most beautiful place; sloping 




I.EGH RICHMOND. 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



239 



wood and meadow ground reach round the Chine, which is a cleft be- 
tween the cliffs, of the depth of nearly three hundred feet." The site of 
the town is deeply undulating, presenting many quiet nooks and dells, 
wherein nestle the most charming of leafy cottages, surrounded by dense 
hedges and espaliers tapestried with masses of flowers — fuchsias, gerani- 
ums, sweet-peas, heliotropes, and roses, deftly interwoven by nature and 
art combined. On the sea-side the village everywhere terminates in bold 
precipices, whose brow is parapeted with turf, and furnished here and 
there with rustic seats. On the sands, at the base, fishermen's rude huts, 
fishing-boats, lobster-baskets, and fishing-nets are picturesquely grouped, 
and, I regret to add, rows of the inevitable bathing-machines. It is but 
small compensating consolation to the artistic eye to be assured that the 
sandy floor is here the finest on the island. From the lofty slopes of 
Dunnose the prospect over Sandown Bay offers one of the loveliest sea- 
views to be found on any coast, when the skies are blue, flecked and 
barred by the faint tracery of fleecy, moveless summer clouds, the shining 
cliffs assuming a tender roseate hue 



in the mellow afternoon glow, and 
the amethystine sea enclosing the 
isle with a line of silver foam, and 
itself enclosed in the distance by the 
dreamy coast of Old England, and 
lit up by the sails of trim yachts or 
clippers fading away toward unseen i 
lands. 

But to most people the great at- I 
traction of Shanklin is the Chine. 
The word chine is a local name ap- 
plied to deep grooves or clefts worn 
into the sides of the sea-cliffs, in the 
course of long ages, by streams seek- 
ing to merge their brief current of 
life with the eternity of ocean. 
Many have been the enthusiastic 
lovers of nature who have visited 
Shanklin Chine, and have lived po- 
etic hours or composed living verse 
in this romantic ravine. The steep, closely opposing sides "are densely 
^hung with verdure, and it is certainly a very attractive spot. But I con- 
fess to disappointment when I saw Shanklin Chine. The stream is gener- 




JOHN WILKES. 



240 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 









ally exceedingly meagre — a mere insignificant thread dribbling down the 
side of a low precipice, and slipping with proper humility over a suc- 
cession of narrow steps 
or ledges toward the sea, 
close at hand. It did not 
add to my interest to find 
that in some places artifi- 
cial, squarely cut slabs had 
replaced the natural bed 
where it had been worn 
away. The dampness of- 
the place, even in mid- 
summer, is quite repelling.;' 
and if poor Keats spent 
much time there when he 
was trying to recruit his 
health at Shanklin, it 
must have added to the 
intensity of the fatal dis- 
ease which brought him 
to an early grave. I have 
seen scores of places of 
the sort, but much less 
known, which quite sur- 
pass Shanklin Chine in 
beauty and impressive- 
ness. 

It was with a certain 
sneaking feeling of rec- 
reancy to my principles 
that I stole into Ventnor from Shanklin by the railway. It was an evening 
of surpassing; loveliness, the western sky lit by the hyaline amber and gold 
of warmer climes, and the crescent forming a silvery cleft in the twilight 
— fortunately over my right shoulder — when suddenly, with a diabolical 
shriek from the engine, we were whisked out of the glimpses of the moon 
into the Plutonian darkness of a long and most unromantic tunnel. When 
we at length emerged, and found ourselves in Ventnor, and I entered the 
hotel coach, the extraordinary steepness of the streets suggested the hope 
that the steeds were not of a frolicsome nature, or we might bring up on 
the edge of a precipice, aud take a plunge of several hundred feet into 




SHANKLIN CHINE. 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



241 



the sea. But we stopped safe and sound at the Grab and Lobster, of 
which I can speak in the most hearty terms of commendation. Years 
ago, ere Ventnor had arrived at its present importance, the Crab and 
Lobster was a wee bit of a hostel nestling under the cliffs, noted for its 
good cheer and a thorough respectability which rendered it inaccessible 
to all but respectable guests. But times changed ; visitors increased in 
such degree that at last a larger building was added on to the old inn, 
which, covered with ivy, clings to the newer and more pretentious dwell- 
ing. To make room for the latter, the steep rock-sides were hewn away. 
Even now the Crab and Lobster is of moderate proportions, thus offering 
accommodation to a limited few, an immense advantage to the visitor, and, 
in the way it is kept, it is truly a model English inn. From the heights 
immediately in the rear, reached by steep winding paths, where seats, 
shaded by flowering shrubbery, are provided, a most delightful prospect 
is obtained over isle and sea. 

Ventnor is situated on the undercliff, a narrow, broken strip of land, 





VENTNOH, FROM PILPIT HOCK. 



half a mile wide and seven miles long, from Luccombe Chine, iir the east, 
to Blackgang Chine, in the west. On the north it is bounded by the 
steep, lofty wall of Boniface Down and St. Catherine's Hill, springing 

16 



242 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

to a height of over eight hundred feet. On the south it terminates in 
precipitous cliffs, washed by the ocean surges. Such is a general plan 
of the undercliff, which was formed ages ago by the breaking away of 
the slopes, undermined, perhaps, by streams and rains. In dire confusion, 
the sliding mass rushed toward the sea, and the undercliff was the result. 
But neither pen nor pencil can adequately portray the limitless variety 
of forms, the exquisite and suggestive beauty, which render the undercliff 
the most enchanting spot in the island. It is as if some vast capital of 
the giants of old had been overthrown, and its palaces and towers mingled 
and heaped in indiscriminate ruin, and then overgrown and beautified 
with the rank vegetation which time throws like a green shroud over 
the remains of dead cities. The illusion is heightened by the cliffs from 
which this landslip was detached. In many places the jagged and ver- 
tical rocks, sometimes actually overhanging the road, bear the closest re- 
semblance in form and color to ancient fortifications of stupendous di- 
mensions. 

So far, Nature has done her part in beautifying this part of the Isle 
of Wight ; while man, with the best intentions in the world, is doing his 
best to subtract from these attractions. A few cottages and country-seats, 
such as the English know how to create to perfection, did no harm to the 
undercliff ; they, perhaps, added to its beauty by the introduction of here 
and there a lovely garden, a Tudor casement peeping out of viny trellises, 
a few rosy-cheeked children playing by the road-side, or some peerless 
English girl reclining on a green bank, or blending her evening song with 
the warbling of the nightingale. But alas for the truism, " One may have 
too much of a good thing !" for that is exactly the trouble with Ventnor 
just now. From a humble hamlet, reposing in the sweetest spot of Old 
England's loveliest isle, it has reached a population of six thousand, which 
is rapidly increasing, with newspapers, shops, hotels, and all the other ap- 
purtenances of a highly popular watering-place. The rapidly rising houses 
are fast hiding some of the characteristic features of the undercliff, and 
every pretty drive is disfigured by such advertisements as the following: 
" This fine lot of two acres to let for 999 years ;" or, " This noble estate 
to let for 2000 years; inquire of Find and Fleecem, Cheatem St., London." 
Why a piece of land that is to let for twenty centuries should not be sold 
outright, it is difficult to understand. Imagine the bother of now collecting 
rent from an estate on a lease made before Julius Csesar was born. The 
two thousand years since that event are not yet up. Besides, if titles and 
contracts can be made available for such a period, it is rather sharp prac- 
tice to try the process at the undercliff, for some of the estates so leased 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



243 



there have, in all probability, but a short tenure of life. The overhang- 
ing cliffs are sure to tumble on the estate before the two thousand years 
are out. A landslip in 1810 destroyed thirty acres; one, in 1799, hurled 
one hundred acres seaward, and several similar convulsions have occurred 
more recently. Those who would see the charms of the undercliff be- 
fore, it has been further defaced by man should, therefore, not delay their 
visit to the Isle of Wight. 

But, after all, one cannot blame the good people who flock to Ventnor 
during the summer and winter for pleasure or health. He has only him- 
self to blame if, when he goes to 
commune with Nature in her happi- 
est moods and aspects, he allows his 
reflections to be constantly disturbed 
by the hundreds and thousands of 
chattering tourists, swarming over 
cliff and vale like flies over a bowl 
of sugar, or geologists and mineral- 
ogists chipping the rocks with their 
hammers, indifferent artists sketch- 
ing in every choice nook, and pho- 
tographers introducing their instru- 
ments in the most impressive spots. 
As to invalids, if they must go to the 
Isle of Wight for their health, Vent- 
nor is, of course, the only place for 
them there, after the autumn sets in, 
with its southern exposure and pro- 
tection from northerly winds. An 
asylum for consumptives, entitled the 
National Cottage Hospital for Con- 
sumptives, has been established at Ventnor, consisting of a central church, 
and eight pairs of cottages on each side; it also includes a hall for con- 
certs and social entertainments. The object of this institution is to fur- 
bish comfortable lodgings, with the best medical attendance, to invalids 
unable to go to better health resorts, or who cannot afford the expenses 
of good boarding-houses or hotels. It seems to have been attended with 
a fair degree of success since its foundation in 1868. The manager's re- 
port for 1876 curiously sums up the net gain of the year as represented 
by a ton of flesh. A ton of flesh is not bad. If not strictly elegant, it is 
expressive, and saves the bewildered mind from floundering among the 




THE NATURAL LNtllY. 



244 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



minute details of most sanitary reports. Is not the hint worth following 
in other social statistics? In municipal reports, or a national census, in- 




BONOIIL'KC'II. 



stead of summing up the number of dead and born, or the gains in popula- 
tion, why not simply and effectively set down the net result in tons of flesh ? 

To the eastward, and immediately adjoining Ventnor, which has grown 
up to it, is the lovely hamlet of Bonchnrch. In Monk's Bay, by which 
it lies, St. Boniface landed, in a.d. 755, and Bonchnrch is said to be a cor- 
ruption of Bonecerce — the Church of St. Boniface. There is a well called 
after and dedicated to the saint by a certain bishop, who, on a dark night 
in the nights long ago, lost his way on the steep side of Boniface Down. 
His horse, and, in fact, the whole of creation, seemed slipping from under 
him as he sped down the declivity, when the horse's hoofs were caught 
in the cavity of the spring, which gave the bishop breathing-time to vow 
an acre of ground to the saint if he would carry him safely to the bottom. 
The saint was so pleased to become a land-owner that he closed with the 
terms, and the bishop lived to keep his promise. The well, on the day 
of St. Boniface, was formerly resorted to by the village maidens, who hung 
garlands there. Divers superstitions and much love-making and junket- 
ing — all common features of holy wells — were also associated with this spot. 

There are various other attractions connected with the idyllic charms 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



245 



of Bonchureh, but the choicest, sweetest spot within its bounds is its little 
church and church-yard. This quaint little chapel, built four or five cen- 
turies ago, is scarce thirty feet long, but contains two minute galleries, 
and is not a bad specimen of the Norman style. A curious painting 
of the Last Judgment adorns the wall. The little graveyard, overlook- 
ing the sea, and overhung by ivied elms, seems, in its quiet beauty, to rob 
death of some of its bitterness. Here lie the remains of the Rev. Wil- 
liam Adams, author of " The Shadow of the Cross." John Sterling sleeps 
close by, poet, prose-writer, novelist, and conversationalist, who died aged 
thirty-eight, according to the tombstone, and in his day was highly appre- 
ciated by certain cultivated minds— not so much, it would seem, for any- 
thing he actually achieved as for the general sum of his powers and the 



U 






■ 



■ 

■ 



- ■ 



..A 



. 









! 



■ 







THE WELL OF ST. LAWRENCE. 



impression of possible greatness. A grave of more recent and melancholy 
interest is that of Emily Co wper- Coles, who died in 1876. She was the 



246 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 




A CKAB-MTONER. 



widow of Captain Cowper-Coles, who, on a wild night off the coast of 
Portugal, went down with five hundred souls in the famous, ill-fated 
iron-clad Captain^ of which he was the builder. 

To describe all the delightfully rural walks and coignes of vantage 

which offer pleasing views in the 
neighborhood of Bonchurch and 
Ventnor would be a tedious task — 
they are so numerous. But by keep- 
ing on to the westward alono; the 
undercliff, one comes to the minia- 
ture chapel of St. Lawrence, said to 
be the smallest in Great Britain, and 
a well dedicated to the same lazy 
saint. Thence it is a pleasant stroll 
to St. Catherine's Point — how the 
saints do abound in the Isle of 
Wight ! On this headland is a hand- 
some light -house, whose lantern is 
174 feet above the ocean. Niton, or Crab Niton, just beyond, noted for 
its Crustacea, is attractive for its charming country-seats, and is also the 
scene of an interesting historical incident. Admiral Hopson, who was 
born at Bonchurch, was apprenticed to a tailor at Niton, when an Eng- 
lish squadron was seen manoeuvring off the coast. The Anglo-Saxon 
love of the sea suddenly smote his heart. He rushed to the beach, sprung 
into a boat, rowed off to the fleet, and was taken on board. An engage- 
ment with the French soon after occurring, the lad is said to have achieved 
distinction, and hastened the defeat of their fleet b}' springing from the 
main-yard into the enemy's rigging, and, under cover of the smoke, tear- 
ing down their colors. Whatever be the truth of this not impossible feat, 
it is quite true that he was promoted early, and eventually reached the 
highest rank in the British navy by his courage and skill. 

Beyond Niton, we come to the Black Gang Chine, a grim abyss, over 
whose frowning edge a stream spills its wavering torrent into the surging 
vortex below, where the restless ocean forever foams and thunders. From 
here, hy coach or on foot, sometimes by the margin of lofty sea-cliffs, some- 
times by the most home-like and tidy farm-houses and hamlets imagina- 
ble, we come to Brixton. Frequently, in the green lanes, one meets groups 
of flaxen-haired, plump-cheeked, and rosy urchins and girlikins, such as 
Birket Foster delights to paint — the future hope and strength of the land 
of Shakspeare and Cromwell. 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



247 



Brixton, or Brightstone, has within its bounds a typical English village 
church in good preservation. The low, square, turreted tower, with its 
peaked roof, is singularly picturesque. The original Norman arcade has 
recently been restored. In this little church once ministered those two 
good men, Thomas Ken, the religious poet, and Bishop of Bath and Wells, 
in the seventeenth century, and Samuel Wilberforce, late Bishop of Win- 
chester. 

Passing by Brooke, the parish of Freshwater is reached, which, within 
its brief limits, contains some of the grandest coast scenery in Great Brit- 
ain. Freshwater is a small peninsula formed by the Yar River, which 
takes its rise within a few rods of the southern shore, and runs north into 
the Solent, where lies Yarmouth town. This little peninsula trends off 
to a point which terminates with the famous Needles. On the south is 
Freshwater Bay, a little bight, with a gray beach enclosed at either end by 
rugged cliffs and some bold rocks. One of these, rising hugely out of the 
surf, is pierced by a Gothic-like arch. Here, also, is the delightfully rural 
village of Freshwater, which is, however, fast losing its primitive quiet and 




beauty before the invasion of a horde of tourists, and the jejune rawness 
of the frequent new houses of a rapidly growing population. Faringford, 
Tennyson's famous residence, is here; but it is no cause for wonder that 
the poet has at last fled from a spot which has lost the sea-side seclusion 



248 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



which gave it such attractiveness. Ere long there will be a railroad be- 
tween this place and Newport. 

Beyond Freshwater Bay is Scratchell's Bay, a cove at the extreme west- 




FARINGFORD, THE RESIDENCE OF ALFRED TENNYSON. 

ern end of the Isle of Wight. The chalk cliffs here soar to over six hun- 
dred feet above the sea, bidding defiance to the ocean with aspect austere 
and sublime. A cave or arch, three hundred feet high, at the base of this 
stupendous wall, adds to the grandeur of this magnificent scene, which is 
fitly terminated by the immense savage rocks called the Needles. They 
are five in number, but only three of them are conspicuous. On the out- 
ermost stands a lofty light-house, built to supersede an older structure 
which stands on the higher cliffs, but was found to be too often enveloped 
in mists to be of service to the mariner. These cliffs are haunted by in- 
numerable sea-birds, and some of the adventurous islanders swing them- 
selves over the edge by ropes, and, dangling' in mid-air, search the crannies 
for eggs, which are accounted a delicacy. A cool head and a strong grip 
are the requisites in a business which must continue a monopoly for some 
ages to come. The pursuit is not likely to suffer from competition, that 
blessing of the consumer, and bane of the producer. 

Passing around the Needles, we enter Alum Bay, which is encircled by 
tremendous precipices ranged with a sort of artificial regularity, like the 
segment of an amphitheatre. But the severe sublimity of the scene is re- 
lieved by the surprising variety of colors in the cliffs. By a singular geo- 
logical freak, the pearly -gray monotony of chalk is relieved by vertical 
strata of sand, clays, or marls, inlaid, mosaic-like, on the stupendous mass 
in narrow but distinct stripes of red, black, white, blue, green, or yellow. 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



249 



These tints are harmoniously blended by the soft light of evening into a 
picture of extraordinary beauty. 

Going from Freshwater to Newport, by rolling downs, overgrown with 
swaying harvests, one passes, by an easy transition, from the grander as- 
pects of nature to the alluring charms of a shire town reposing in a happy 
valley, by a tranquil river, and hallowed by the historic associations of 
other times. The wooded coast of Hampshire is visible on the left, under 
the setting sun, as one crosses the Yar River, and Hurst Castle on the end 
of a spit, which, like a breakwater, lies across the mouth of the Solent, and 
reduces the channel to scarce half a mile in width. Newport lies near 
the centre of the island, where the Medina Liver, a brief little stream, be- 
comes an estuary, subject to the tides, and navigable to small craft. A 
Roman origin is claimed for Newport, with some plausibility. That the 
Romans once held and dwelt in the place is beyond question— the tessel- 
lated floor of a Roman villa still exists in the vicinity— but that they were 




'RATl'HELL 



the original founders admits of doubt. In such misty problems as this, 
why not follow the bold. example of the Dutch chronicler who began a his- 
tory of Holland by saying, " Noah was the first Dutchman ?" 



250 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 

Newport is a thriving place, more intent on the present than the past, 
presenting a bustling appearance on Saturdays, when a market or fair is 
held, to which the neighboring farmers flock. The chief objects which 
the fair left on my memory were buxom girls selling chapbooks, rustics 
swollen with overmuch small-beer, and proportionately pugnacious, strap- 
ping redcoats elbowing the crowd, restive cobs put through their paces 
before customers incredulous of their gOod points, and lastly, but not 
leastly, a pig determined to make a noise in the world, whose erratic 
obstinacy aroused the mirth of even the most stolid countryman. New- 
port is the birthplace of Sir Thomas Fleming, who was Lord Chief-Justice 
of England under James I. Until 1853 there was a very interesting par- 
ish church there, dedicated to St. Thomas a Becket. But in that year the 
decay of the venerable building made it necessary to demolish it, and an- 
other edifice was erected on the old site, after the early English decorated 
style. In the new building several interesting monuments were retained 
that had been in the church it replaced, including a very curious pulpit, 
carved by Thomas Caper, in 1630, who has hieroglyphically placed his 
name upon it in the form of an antic goat supposed to symbolize the word 
caper. The pulpit is divided into a double row of emblematical figures 
in bas-relief, and on the sounding-board is wrought the gilded inscrip- 
tion, " Cry aloud and spare not ; lift up the voice like a trumpet." 

Another deeply interesting object in this church is Marochetti's beau- 
tiful monument to the Princess Elizabeth. It was erected at the expense 
of the Queen. The princess is represented in the position in which she 
died, reclining on her side, resting her cheek on the Bible given to her 
by her royal father at the last interview before his execution. The like- 
ness is from a portrait still existing. The inscription runs as follows : 
" To the memory of the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Charles I., who 
died at Carisbrooke Castle, on Sunday, September 8th, 1650, and is in- 
terred beneath the chancel of this church, this monument is erected — a 
token of respect for her virtues and of sympathy for her misfortunes — 
by Victoria R, 1856." 

The princess died at Carisbrooke Castle, where the last weeks of her 
young life were passed. A few days after her arrival there she was over- 
taken by a sudden shower when playing at bowls ; a rapid illness followed, 
of which she died in a fortnio-ht, at the a^e of thirteen vears. She seems 
to have been a very amiable character. She left a simple but affecting 
account of her royal father's last farewell. 

Carisbrooke Castle is but a short mile from Newport, on the edge 
of the village of Carisbrooke. The fortifications crown the crest of a 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



251 



steep hill, which seems as if it had been formed expressly for such a pict- 
uresque pile. By a winding, leafy foot-path, one approaches the impos- 
ing entrance, a lofty archway bearing the initials of Queen Elizabeth, 
and the date 1598. The turf -carpeted moat is crossed by a massive 
stone bridge, leading to the noble barbacan erected by Antony Woodville. 
It is composed of two ponderous but elegant round towers, pierced with 
machicolations. The curtain which joins them is grooved for two port- 
cullises, and bears the rose of the house of York and the Woodville 
escutcheon. Passing through this stately and venerable gate -way, one 
enters the spacious court-yard of the castle, and finds himself surrounded 
by an unbroken circuit of brown, mouldering walls, profusely draped with 
ivy. On the left are the apartments occupied by Charles I. The roof 
has fallen in, but the fireplaces are still distinctly visible, and the divis- 
ions which marked his dining -hall and bedchamber. The window out 
of which he tried to escape is tilled up with masonry, but the original 




TOMB OF TUE PRINCESS ELIZABETH. 



outline remains. Climbing up to the summit of the barbican, the long, 
narrow walk along the ramparts leads one to the keep, on the north-east 
ano-le of the castle, said to stand on an artificial mound. It is an exceed- 
ingly venerable pile, erected by the Normans. They have seemingly 
wrought into it their sturdy and determined character. Like a sentinel 
who steadfastly remains at his post when all his comrades are gone, it 
towers above the land, grim and immovable, to guard the trophies of a 
race that long since passed away to the halls of oblivion. A' light-house 
on a stormy coast, it braves alone the surges of ages, while from winter 
to winter wreck after wreck sweeps by. Its own turn must come at last. 



252 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



A flight of seventy-fo*ur marble steps, excessively steep, narrow, and 
worn, leads to the platform, which is guarded by a gate grooved for a 
portcullis. From thence is obtained one of the most extensive and beau- 
tiful prospects in the Isle of Wight. In former years the landscape was 




CARISBROOKE CASTLE. 



so covered with forests, that it was said a squirrel could go from Caris- 
brooke to Gurnard Bay without touching ground ; but now much of the 
larger portion of the island is bare, here and there embossed with clumps 
of massive elms and limes, but generally devoted to agriculture and past- 
urage. Immediately below the keep, and entirely surrounding the an- 
cient mural fortifications of Carisbrooke, are the works thrown up at the 
time of the Spanish Armada, modelled on the plan of those erected at 
Antwerp by Italian engineers. They have undergone little modification 
since, but are well turfed and neatly kept. It is not to the credit of the 
English Government that the original castle is in such a dilapidated con- 
dition. To be sure, it is thus more picturesque; but unless more care of 
this majestic and interesting relic of past ages is better guarded in future 
from the gnawing tooth of time, coming generations will have just right 
to murmur at a parsimony which allows one of the most impressive and 
instructive monuments in Europe to slip into annihilation. 

The remains of the chapel are worth noticing, although they do not 
date back of the last century, having been erected on the site of a much 
older structure. It is not uncommon to see picnic parties taking tea un- 
der the trees which overtop the roofless fane. The building formerly 
occupied by the governor of the castle is very old, including within its 
walls the chapel of Isabella de Fortibus. But it has been so repaired, 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 253 

altered, and restored from time to time as hardly to be in keeping with 
the antique ruins by which it is surrounded. There are two wells of great 
depth in the castle; the one in the donjon is fabulously deep, but being 
choked up with stones, one must be content to accept the current state- 
ments without question. The other well is 144 feet deep — quite suffi- 
cient, one would think; but the visitor is liable to be informed that it is 
300 feet. It is covered by a room, in one side of which is a very large 
tread-wheel. A venerable donkey is introduced on the scene; he walks 
into the wheel with deliberation, and, the while inquisitively eying the 
by-standers, draws up the bucket. No sooner does it reach the curb than 
he makes an abortive attempt to bray ; but old age has impaired his once 
tuneful throat. He has been employed at this not severely intellectual 
occupation for thirty-three years. Several donkeys have served before 
him — one for thirty years, and two others for over forty years each. Ro- 
tation in office does not seem to be common at Carisbrooke. Office-seek- 
ers will therefore find it useless to apply. 

Many interesting historical incidents are associated with Carisbrooke 
Castle, but none more interesting than the imprisonment of Charles I. 
within its walls. Contrary to the general opinion, that unfortunate mon- 
arch was not sent to Carisbrooke by Parliament, but went there of his 
own accord, as to a safe asylum from his enforced confinement at Hamp- 
ton Court. Restive under restraint, and perhaps apprehending assassina- 
tion from poison or the dagger, King Charles contrived to elude his guard, 
and fled to Titchfield House, near the southern coast, where he was hos- 
pitably received and concealed. Thence he despatched messengers to 
Colonel Hammond, the governor of the Isle of Wight, in whose well- 
known character for kindliness, and moderation, and honor he placed re- 
liance. Hammond returned with them to Titchfield House, and the king 
concluded then to place himself under his protection, trusting for his 
favorable interposition between Parliament and its captive. Accordingly 
he crossed the Solent, and entered the stern walls of Carisbrooke. But 
the Parliamentary leaders, having the king once more within their grip, 
were not minded to release him, and Colonel Hammond received strict 
orders, which made him answerable for the possession of Charles. How- 
ever, he treated the king with much kindness, allowing him large liberty. 
even to hunting: in the neio-hborino; forests. But after the king's first at- 
tempt to escape, he was brought under much closer surveillance. Henry 
Firebrace, a faithful adherent of the king's household, devised' a plan for 
escape by entering into communication with Captain Titus, one of the 
wardens, as'Iio was secretly a royalist. A system of correspondence was 



254 



THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 



contrived, and it was finally decided that on a concerted niglit Charles 
should let himself down from the window of his chamber. Horses would 
be in waiting to carry him to the coast. Pie was advised to cut the bars 
of the window with aquafortis and a file, but maintained that where his 
head could pass his body could follow.. All was in readiness when the 
appointed hour arrived, and Firebrace, by a concerted signal, flung a stone 
against the window. The king was to descend, seated on a crossbar at- 
tached to the end of a rope, and he now proceeded to pass out of the 
window ; but his shoulders stuck fast, and for some moments he was in 
a very painful position. Had it not been for the precaution he had taken 
of fastening a cord to a staple within, he would have been unable to with- 
draw himself from this awkward situation. Firebrace heard him groan, 
and soon after Charles put a candle in the window, indicating the failure 
of the scheme. One need not necessarily be a royalist or an Episcopalian in 

order to sjunpathize deeply with this 
ill-fated but heroic monarch in his 
misfortunes. By a mysterious law 
of Providence, it was his destiny to 
expiate the crimes of his predeces- 
sors by being placed in a false posi- 
tion, with which he was incapable of 
coping successfully. He was made 
the scape -goat for the sins of Ed- 
ward IV., Henry VIII., Mary, Eliza- 
beth, and James I. His public er- 
rors were the results of education 
or incapacity to deal with a great 
crisis. In private life and character, 
he surpassed his predecessors and most of his successors. 

A pleasant stroll of three or four miles from Newport takes one to 
the peaceful vale and village of Arreton, the scene of a simpler, yet not 
less instructive, drama than that of Carisbrooke. There still stands the 
picturesque cottage of Elizabeth Walbridge, the " Dairyman's Daughter," 
whose story is so beautifully told by Legh Richmond. Her grave is in 
the village church-yard, from which her cottage is somewhat over a mile 
distant ; the headstone bears a beautiful tribute to her memory. 

After seeing Newport and Carisbrooke, one naturally and rightfully 
concludes that to linger long at Cowes, at the mouth of the Medina, is 
of little advantage, unless he is of a yachting turn. West Cowes Castle, 
built by Henry VIII. out of the ruins of Beaulieu Priory, was, in 1651, 




THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 255 

the prison of Davenant, the father of English opera. In 1S56 it was 
sold to the Royal Yacht Club, who employ its battery for firing yachting 
salutes. The Royal Yacht Club has its rendezvous at Cowes, and includes 
over one hundred and fifty crack yachts on its rolls. The annual regatta 
occurs in the third week in August, and the plate is given by Her Majesty. 
East Cowes, on the highlands, on the right bank of the Medina River, is 
the seat of some handsome villas. Here, too, is Osborne, one of the fa- 
vorite residences of the Queen, an elegant and imposing edifice after the 
Palladian style. Connected with the extensive grounds is the model farm 
which was one of the hobbies of the late Prince Consort. But the public 
is never admitted to the palace or gardens, and one can only speak of 
Osborne from hearsay. 

At the north of the Isle of Wight the waters of the Solent and Spit- 
head unite in what is called Southampton Water, the beautiful channel 
which leads up to Southampton. It was on a charming day, after gaz- 
ing for many hours at the graceful yachts lying at Cowes, drying their 
canvas or gliding from point to point, that I reluctantly took the steamer, 
and landed at Southampton, thirteen miles away. 



APPENDIX. 



i. 

ON THE ADVANTAGES OF SMALL ISLANDS, ESPECIALLY ATLANTIC 

ISLANDS. 

The advantages of islands, especially small ones, for purposes of health or pleas- 
ure, were not as yet clearly perceived in the time of Sancho Panza. But with 
the good sense and shrewdness which were so often apparent through his rustic sim- 
plicity and clownish ignorance, he early displayed an admirable perception of the 
value of islands as playing an important part in the economy of human affairs. To 
be sure, the island of which he eventually became the governor was not exactly the 
sort of island included as such under the ordinary acceptation of the term ; but 
Sancho was correct in his apprehension of the principle involved. It was for an 
island, and not for a continent, that he sighed. And he was abetted in his insular 
aspirations by no less a traveller, adventurer, and ornament of chivalry than Don 
Quixote himself, through whose influence Sancho became the governor of an island 
so called for euphony. 

I am convinced that the love for islands, and especially for small islands, is 
rational and improving. It enables one to gratify the roving propensity, and at 
the same time to combine with it the attainment of information, breadth and catho- 
licity in judging men, and thoroughness in the pursuit of a given end. That thor- 
oughness may be one of the results of visiting small islands is almost self-evident, 
but, strange to say, some may be found who doubt it ; and yet is it not indubitable, 
for the following reasons? Every island, however small, is a distinct microcosm or 
community, with people, customs, climate, laws, and geographical features peculiar 
to itself, and separated from the rest of the world with entire distinctness by the 
water which isolates it. Now, we will suppose that a traveller or scientist undertakes 
to master the various physical, historical, and social features of France or Germany, 
or any other Continental country. But does he not soon find that, to acquire a 
broad, intelligent, and thorough knowledge of that country, he must devote to it 
many years, and possibly a lifetime, and will even at the last feel how much yet 
remains for others to discover and map out in the same inexhaustible field? 

But given an island of the size of Madeira or New Providence, and while the 
traveller may modestly grant that, after carefully investigating it, there is still much 

IT 



25 S APPENDIX. 

to be learned about it, yet he can honestly claim, on the other band, that in a few 
weeks or months he has been able to obtain a better general idea of it, has been 
able better to comprehend it as a distinct entity, than he could understand the char- 
acter and institutions of Germany, or France, or Russia in a lifetime. Hence fol- 
lows an incentive to thoroughness, besides a greater satisfaction in the pursuit of a 
subject which may be acquired with a certain rounded completeness within a reason- 
able period, thus enabling the traveller to turn with fresh zest to another object 
before he has become wearied with effort too long sustained in one direction. 

Thus far as regards the advantages of small islands in general, and the attrac- 
tions they offer to the tourist or the scientist. But many small islands possess still 
another advantage over a continent, in that they offer superior opportunities for 
improvement to invalids, who are obliged, on account of chronic disease, to leave 
their homes in search of a health resort. No one will dispute the fact that sea air 
is, on the whole, the most fraught with tonic qualities of any, although sometimes it 
needs to be warmed by a southern sun to graduate it to the wasted strength of the 
consumptive. Of course the best way to obtain it is on a ship at sea. But this to 
many is impossible, owing to sea-sickness. A small island is, therefore, the next 
best thing, other things being equal. And the smaller the island, the greater the 
advantage; for then the wind everywhere comes in a more direct manner off the 
sea, laden with its tonic qualities. By the same reasoning, the climate on a small 
island is much less liable to variations and extremes, for sea air is always more 
equable than land air, and the extremes of temperature are much less violent in the 
same latitude on the sea than on the land. If to this greater evenness of tempera- 
ture is added the unchangeable, scarcely varying character imparted to a climate by 
the trade-winds in a latitude free from extreme heat the whole or half of the year, 
on a small island, we have, at last, a climate that is as nearly perfect as can be 
anywhere found for meeting the conditions requisite to restoration of health. 

Thus we arrive at the conclusion that a small island offers, in the first place, 
peculiar and superior advantages to the tourist and the seeker after rational 
entertainment and instruction. In addition to this, and of still greater importance, 
we find that small islands within certain latitudes, and according to the season of 
the year, afford to the invalid the advantages of a tonic air and an equability of 
temperature superior to anything which can be obtained on a continent, even along 
its sea-coast. Thus, during the winter solstice the Bahamas are infinitely to be 
preferred to the neighboring health resorts of Florida, where a weeping sun and a 
capricious temperature often lead the invalid to curse the day that ever he turned 
toward the flowery peninsula. 

We find, further, that of those islands in the North Atlantic which are free from 
yellow fever or endemic pests, those take the precedence which are within the 
beneficent influence of the trade-winds, those delicious breezes which seem by their 
regularity to give such an idea of permanence to life, wafting away regrets for the 
past and unconcern for the future, and magically luring the soul to dwell content 
with the dreamy days as they come and go, and simply enjoy the enormous luxury 



APPENDIX. 259 

of being. It follows that those among the trade-wind islands, on which the invalid 
can live the year round with beneficial and permanent results, are the most desirable 
spots on the globe as health resorts. 

We are thus able to form a distinct classification of the sanitary islands in the 
North Atlantic, and can state with confidence the advantages of each. First among 
the trade-wind islands are Teneriffe and Madeira, where the invalid can stay with 
the best results during the whole year. The valley of Orotava, in Teneriffe, combines 
more climatic advantages than any other island spot in the Atlantic, the variations 
of temperature being excessively slight, the influence of the main-land impercepti- 
ble, and the air dry without the parched aridity of the desert. Madeira is a little 
more moist, and its dampness has somewhat increased since the cultivation of the 
sugar-cane; but it is confined to certain localities, and can be avoided by judicious 
choice of lodgings. The rainfall is also greater, but is, notwithstanding, very mod- 
erate, and the variations in temperature are only a little more noticeable than at 
Orotava; while the social advantages, the means of locomotion, good medical 
attendance, and the comforts so essential to an invalid, are more abundant at 
Madeira than at Teneriffe. The Bahamas, while classed among the trade -wind 
islands, must be assigned a low T er rank than Madeira and Teneriffe, because they can 
be advantageously used as a health resort only for part of the year — from the 1st of 
November to the 1st of May — while the cost of living is much more than at the 
islands just mentioned, without any compensating advantages. But as a sanita- 
rium for winter alone they are, beyond all question, superior to any other health 
resort on the eastern coast of North America. 

Leaving the trade-winds, we now come to island resorts offering less advantages 
than those just mentioned, but still desirable for part of the year to one who cannot 
go as far as the trade-wind islands. The Bermudas are the first of these in celebritv ; 
but, charming as they are for the tourist, they cannot be safely commended to the 
consumptive, except in the contingency that he cannot go to any better resort. 
They are excessively damp, far exceeding in this respect all other sanitary islands, 
and the climate resembles, in boisterousness and variability, that of the adjoining 
continent, although, as the extremes are much less violent, it is so far a decided im- 
provement upon that. 

The Azores may be classed with Bermuda. But while the latter is wholly a win- 
ter and spring resort, the former can be advantageously visited by the invalid only 
from April to October. The excessive force and dampness of the wind make them 
very undesirable during the winter. Prince Edward Island and the Isles of Shoals 
are excellent resorts in summer, especially the former, which, in point of scenery, 
and equability, and moderation of temperature is surpassed by no other island oa 
the American coast as a summer resort. Belleisle-en-mer is to be commended to 
the invalid during the winter months, at least, as a variety, in case he desires change 
for a few weeks, although, of course, of less value than more Southern isles. 

In another class are included the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands, which 
are advantageous during the whole year, although their greater dampness, more 



260 APPENDIX. 

copious rains, and raw winds make them far inferior to Teneriffe and Madeira. 
But to the invalid who does not care to go so far, Ventnor, in the Isle of Wight, 
and Guernsey and Jersey can be safely recommended as superior to most resorts on 
the main-land, and offering excellent social advantages. 

Newfoundland, Cape Breton Island, and the Magdalen Islands present superior 
attractions to the artist and the sportsman, but are too bleak to be of advantage to 
the invalid, except for two or three months in the summer to those who still have a 
robust constitution that is only temporarily enfeebled. 

It cannot be too strongly emphasized that those who would obtain the full bene- 
fit of these resorts should go to them early. Too many make them the. last resource, 
and go when it is too late to derive health or life from any quarter. If they then 
die on the islands, it is too often attributed to the climate, and not to the tardiness 
of the remedy. Abundant time should also be allowed for a thorough cure. Many 
think that they are cured as soon as they feel somewhat better, and consequently 
return too soon to the bleak climate from which they had fled. Chronic maladies 
require patience, systematic care, and time, so that the constitution may be able to 
readjust its disordered functions. 

The patient who resorts to these islands should also distinctly understand, and 
constantly remember, that a few days of acclimation are generally required, during 
which greater caution is requisite ; while prudence, and regularity of habits, and 
avoidance of exposure or overfatigue can at no time be dispensed with. Too many 
who are of convivial habits think that in such a climate they can defy ill health, 
and, after deriving some benefit from the change, finally neutralize it by yielding to 
the seductive temptations which more easily assail them while living a life of en- 
forced idleness. The climate is then slandered, and unjustly receives the blame for 
the lack of cure which naturally results from vice or imprudence. This accounts 
for some of the pamphlets which sometimes come out against these sanitary re- 
sorts. It is well for the invalid to see a good physician soon after landing, and 
learn of him the regimen and regulations required, according to the climate and 
the nature of his disease. 



II. 

THE BAHAMAS.* 



Nassau, the best winter resort on the American coast, is reached by the steam 
line of Murray, Ferris & Co., No. 62 South Street, New York, who have entered 
.into a contract for five years, to carry mails and passengers. One boat sails month- 
ly throughout the year from New York to Nassau direct : fare $50 — round trip, $90. 

* The chapter on the Bahamas in this volume first appeared in Harper's New Monthly Maga- 
zine, together with several of the other chapters ; others came out in Scribner's Monthly, the Atlan- 
tic Monthly, Appletona' 1 Journal, and Sunday Afternoon, from which they are now republished, with 
considerable additional matter. The description of the Isles of Shoals has not appeared elsewhere. 



APPENDIX. 261 

From November to May, a steamer of the same company sails also from Savannah 
for Nassau, touching at St. Augustine : fare $21 ; or, from New York via the above 
places, $50, and the round trip $95. 

The best hotel at Nassau is the Royal Victoria Hotel, a spacious, well-constructed 
building, erected by the Government at a cost of $1 50,000. It stands on an ele- 
vation, and is built of limestone, three stories high, and is surrounded by spacious 
verandas, commanding a noble prospect and fanned by the trade-winds. The apart- 
ments are large and airy, and well kept. The drawing-room is a most delightful 
apartment, and the dining-hall is very inviting. This is one of the most attractive 
hotels I have seen at any island resort on the western side of the Atlantic. Adjoin- 
ing the hotel is a pleasant billiard-room, and the public library is close at hand. 
This hotel is now leased and conducted by Messrs. Mellen, Conover, & King, and 
opens November 1st, and closes May 15th. The terms are $3 per diem, and the 
average expenses are little less than those of a first-class hotel in the United States. 
Sail -boats and carriages are always on hand, and the numerous charming coves 
and lagoons, and the admirable roads, suggest various means of enjoyment to the 
sportsman or the invalid. 

Such extravagant eulogiums have been bestowed on Nassau, that, to the appetite 
fed on such highly seasoned food, a more temperate estimate of its sanitary and social 
advantages may seem tame. But speaking as I do, without any bias, and from a 
wide personal experience of many island resorts, I must assign Nassau a lower place 
than either Madeira or Teneriffe, because it is beneficial for only part of the year, 
while the humidity of the evenings makes it imprudent for the confirmed invalid to 
expose himself to the night air; and the social advantages and the attractions of the 
scenery suffer decidedly by comparison with those offered by the transatlantic isles. 
But having made these reservations, I can heartily recommend Nassau to those who 
cannot cross the Atlantic as by far the best winter sanitarium within easy access of 
the United States. 

Frost is unknown in the Bahamas. Many years ago a slight film of snow cov- 
ered part of the Great Bahama Island. It was a sight never seen there before 
or since, and filled the simple natives with astonishment. The most careful and 
thorough observations, taken for successive years by the scientific men of Nassau, 
indicate that the temperature from November 1st to May 1st does not fall below 
63°, nor rise above 82°, and rarely varies over 8° in the twenty-four hours. Once 
or twice in the season it may vary 12°, while oftener the change may not be over 
6°. The humidity is not excessive, averaging 73.3°, but it is very marked after 
sunset. Yellow fever has occurred but two or three times during this century, 
and then was brought from Havana. There is nothing in the nature of the soil to 
induce that or any other epidemic, so long as the first principles of drainage are 
observed by the inhabitants. During the summer, however, the long -continued 
heat and the rains relax the system, and are weakening to invalids. 



262 APPENDIX. 



THE AZORES. 



These islands are reached in the most direct manner from the United States by 
sailing-packets from Boston — the bark Azorean, John E. May & Co., the bark Kate 
Williams, J. J. Alves, and the bark Modesta — the latter Portuguese, and chiefly em- 
ployed for the transit of the islanders emigrating to the United States. The first 
two can be recommended as thoroughly sea-worthy and reliable vessels, commanded 
by men experienced in the trade. The fare is $60, or, for the round trip, $100. 
The passage out averages sixteen days, and the return voyage twenty-four days. 
The vessel remains at the islands three to four weeks, sometimes visiting Flores and 
St. Michael, Ten weeks may be allowed as the time for an average trip, if one 
goes and returns in the same trip, making a charming summer excursion. 

From England the Azores may be reached during the winter season by weekly 
steamers, sent by Tatham & Co., No. 35 Pudding Lane, London, from that port to 
St. Michael. The fare is £10, wine included. Time, about five days. 

Two Portuguese steam-packets ply bimonthly between Lisbon and the islands — 
the Luzo and the Atlantico. The Luzo, leaving Lisbon on the 1st, touches at St. 
Michael, Terceira, and Fayal, and the Atlantico visits all the islands of the group 
except Corvo. The distance is a little over 700 miles ; time to St. Michael, about 
three days. 

The Portuguese hotel at Flores is a small affair, and cannot be highly recom- 
mended. At Fayal there is an excellent house, called the Fayal Hotel, under the 
courteous superintendence of Mr. and Mrs. Edwards. It overlooks the port and 
Pico Peak, and a large and attractive .garden is attached to the hotel. The table is 
loaded with the game, fish, and fruits of the islands. The terms are $2 a day, 
and the extras are quite insignificant. The Hotel Central is also well kept, al- 
though small. Numerous meek and docile little donkeys afford the chief mode of 
visiting Castello Branco, the Flamengoz, and other attractive spots about the island. 

At Ponta Delgada, St. Michael, is a spacious hotel near the water, managed 
tolerably well by Mr. Bird, an Englishman. At the Sulphur Springs, called the 
Furnas, there are two hotels, situated in the midst of scenery highly interesting and 
romantic. The best of these is very efficiently kept by Mr. Brown, an Englishman. 
The other is maintained indifferently well by Senhor Lerogno. 

It cannot be too distinctly stated that the Azores are no place for invalids to 
visit during the winter season. It is true the Thermal Springs, or Furnas of St. 
Michael, may be visited nearly as well at that season as in summer; but the advan- 
tages they offer may be gained at some of the numerous sulphur springs of Germany 
or France. For those afflicted with throat or lung diseases, rheumatism or the pro- 
tean forms of neuralgia, the Azores are quite too damp and boisterous in winter. 
The rainfall is then considerable, the winds are very violent and searching, and the 
houses are adapted only to those in rugged health. Not that the temperature is 
ever low at the Azores, the yearly mean being 62° at Fayal, and it rarely falls below 



APPENDIX. 2G3 

53°, although 44° has been reached; but the mean temperature of winter, while- 
steady, rarely rises above 58°, and is raw and humid. But a marvellous change 
occurs after the first of May, and continues through September. The rains are 
reduced to a minimum, and the air becomes soft and dry. The mean temperature 
in July at mid-day is 73°, sometimes rising to 80°, but rarely varying over 6° in the 
twenty-four hours. Then is the time to visit Fayal, to breathe its delicious and 
invigorating air, to bask in its beautiful gardens, and enjoy the grand and beautiful 
scenery of those lovely isles. 

THE MAGDALEN ISLANDS. 

These islands are reached most easily, by one who does not mind roughing it, in 
a fishing-schooner. Many schooners from Gloucester make the Magdalen Islands a 
rendezvous for mackerel fishing, and it is not difficult to secure a passage in one of 
them. A less direct but more comfortable way is to go to Prince Edward Island 
by rail or steamer, and take the steamboat which touches at Souris, on the eastern 
end of that island. 

At Havre Aubert, on Amherst Island, hotels or boarding-houses are kept by 
Mrs. Shea and Mrs. Burns. The accommodations are scant, and the fare is simple. 
But the rooms are clean and the food well served, and seventy -five cents a day 
cannot be called high for board and lodging. At the other places where the vis- 
itor may resort, he will have to depend on the hospitality of the leading families, 
whose charges are very moderate. 

The Magdalen Islands can hardly be recommended as a sanitarium for invalids. 
But to the sportsman and the artist, or the searcher after an interesting spot for 
an invigorating and novel summer vacation, they cannot be too highly commended. 
As yet but little known, their wild and sublime sea scenery, the abundance of the 
sea-fowl, and the raciness of rambling about those wreck-strewn isles, are attractions 
which should not be easilv set aside for resorts of a tamer character. 



THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 

These islands are reached by steamers plying daily from Southampton and 
Weymouth. The distance is the same by each route, but the passage by water is 
longer from the former place — 123 miles — but only 82 miles from Weymouth. 
The passage is often exceedingly boisterous, but the boats are strong and weatherly. 
There are also daily steamers plying from Jersey to Granville and St. Malo. Jersey 
lies 21 miles from St. Peter's Port, Guernsey, and 42 miles from St. Malo. 

These islands are well supplied with hotels and lodging-houses, which generally 
afford comfortable quarters and a good table for a moderate sum. .At the hotels 
7s. to 8s. per day is the average price, and the boarding-houses charge 35s. to 45s. 
per week, and the extras are trifling. Gardner's Royal Hotel, oh Glatney Espla- 
nade, is one of the best at St. Peter's Port, although not very large. It overlooks 



'204: APPENDIX. 

the harbor. Of boarding-houses the best is Gardner's Old Government House. It 
occupies an elevated position, fronting a charming garden, and commanding a grand 
view of the town, the sea, and the adjacent isles. It is well kept, and the terms 
are moderate. These two establishments must not be confounded by the visitor, 
as the proprietor's name is the same in each. Taudevin's, Mrs. Richards's, and 
several other excellent boarding-houses, aid to extend a hospitable reception to the 
invalid or tourist resorting to Guernsey. It is not difficult to lease a pleasant cot- 
tage, and such as prefer to live in that way will find the costs of living by no 
means extravagant. Those proposing to winter in the Channel Islands would 
do well to secure lodgings at an early date. In summer the islands swarm with 
tourists, but they are generally only transient visitors. 

At St. Heliers, the Royal Yacht Club Hotel, facing the pier, is one of the best. 
The Imperial, on the St. Saviour's Road, is a large and conveniently arranged hotel. 
Of many boarding-houses, Bree's, at Stopford Terrace, can be highly recommended 
as commodious, clean, the table and service good, and the charges moderate, consid- 
ering the high character of the establishment. It is unfortunately situated, however, 
because it does not command a sea-view, which seems to be desirable in such a 
place ; but, on the other hand, it is protected from the biting winter gales. Mrs. 
Treleavan's, at Mon Sejour, can also be highly recommended as moderate and thor- 
oughly well sustained. Good lodgings can also be found in the little town of St. 
Aubin. 

At Sark there are several hotels and boarding-houses, and lodgings are obtain- 
able on reasonable terms in a number of private houses. Gavey's Hotel can be 
strongly recommended. Terms, 5s. to 6s. per diem. 

At Alderney there is a good hotel, kept by Captain Scott. This island is 
reached by a mail-boat from Guernsey twice weekly. Sark is also in communica- 
tion with St. Peter's Port by means of a small steamer during the summer. In 
the winter season it is reached only by the Sarkese fishing-boats, which ply between 
the islands in good weather. Sometimes no landing can be effected for weeks. 

As regards climate, the Channel Islands have a much more equable temperature 
than that of the adjoining continent. The thermometer often varies only 7° or 8° 
in the month. They are, therefore, to be preferred to most Continental health 
resorts, and also to the Isle of Wight. In summer the air is exceedingly soft and 
balmy, and entirely free from extreme heat. An invalid who desires a change after 
a winter or two or three years in Madeira, might, if strengthened by his sojourn 
there, pass the summer in the Channel Islands with beneficial results. But tbey are 
to be recommended as a winter sanitarium only to those who cannot go to the trade- 
wind islands farther south ; for in that season there is much dampness, occasion- 
ally a frost, and a liability to flurries of snow — at long intervals, however. But the 
difference between such weather and the delicious winter mildness and evenness of a 
winter in the trade-wind islands is great, and altogether in favor of the latter. At 
no season should those troubled with rheumatism or rheumatic neuralgia resort to 
the Channel Islands. 



APPENDIX. 265 

It is a curious fact that, although clustered so near together, the Channel Islands 
vary sensibly in their climatic characteristics. Guernsey is more dry and has a less 
rainfall than Jersey, and a more even temperature, warmer in winter, cooler in sum- 
mer, and is consequently more bracing. The dews are heavy over the whole group, 
and dense fogs are not uncommon, especially in summer. Alderney and Sark seem 
to be rather more dry than Guernsey. Consumptives, in the early stages of the dis- 
ease, may derive benefit at these islands, with proper care of themselves ; and the air 
is highly tonic and invigorating for those who are simply overworked and require a 
temporary change. 

MADEIRA. 

This island is reached by several lines of sailing vessels and steamers. The 
firm of Fowle & Caroll, No. 31 India Wharf, Boston, forward three or four vessels 
during the year; fare, $70 ; time, about twenty-one days. It has been done repeat- 
edly in thirteen to fifteen days, with westerly gales ; the return is about twenty-six 
to thirty days. Yates & Porterfield, of No. 115 Wall Street, New York, send out 
ships touching at Teneriffe; fare, $70. From there it is but thirty-six hours to Ma- 
deira by frequent steamers ; fare between the two islands, £3. Either of these routes 
is cheaper, and sometimes more expeditious, than via Liverpool. The boats of the 
African Steam Navigation Line and of the African Steamship Company leave 
Liverpool trimonthly for Madeira — time, six days; fare, 18 guineas. There is also 
a trimonthly line from Southampton. All these boats can be well recommended. 
A comfortable Portuguese steamer leaves Lisbon bimonthly for Madeira, and by 
taking ship direct from New York to Lisbon, time, and certainly money, might be 
saved. Distance from Lisbon, 500 miles ; time, two days. Other steamers are con- 
stantly touching at the island, to or from Lisbon, Bordeaux, Havre, Antwerp, and 
Hamburg; but they are more or less irregular. Madeira has telegraphic communi- 
cation with the rest of the world by cable to Lisbon and Brazil. 

The accommodations for visitors to Madeira are exceptionally good. There are 
several very excellent boarding-houses, partaking partly of the nature of a hotel. 
Reid's and Miles's, in Funchal, can both be very highly recommended. The for- 
mer maintains two houses, one directly on the water's edge overlooking the port, the 
other higher up, opposite the Church of Santa Clara, commanding an extensive land 
and ocean prospect. The terms average $2 per diem, which is moderate, considering 
the excellence of the cuisine and the efficiency of the service. Special contracts can 
sometimes be made by those intending to remain some time. It is well to write 
early for rooms if one is going in the autumn or winter. Between May and October 
many leave, returning again for the winter, and it is easier then to get good rooms. 
The extra expenses at these hotels are trifling. At Santa Cruz there is a most ex- 
cellent hotel, kept by Senhor Gonsalvez, who speaks English fluently. , It is charm- 
ingly situated. At Sant' Anna there is a very finely situated hotel ; the host, Senhor 
Acciaoly, is a thorough gentleman. The terms are about $1 75, or 7s. per diem. 
At Ponta Delgada there is a charming little house, situated in a position of aston- 



266 APPENDIX. 

ishing loveliness; but this may be said of most of the hotels on this matchless 
island. Rooms can be obtained there, and also at the inn at San Vincente, but 
the table and lodgings are quite simple and proportionately cheaper than in Fun- 
chal. This is fully compensated by the delicate air and the glory of the scenery. 
x\t Calheta, on the road to the Rabacal, lodgings may be had for the night in the 
picturesque house of Senhor Drummond, Avhich was once a convent. 

Good horses and hammocks can be hired on moderate terms. If one is to be 
some time on the island, it is well to engage one or the other for the season. A 
burrequiero, or muleteer, always accompanies the horse. For an invalid no more 
delightful mode of locomotion can be devised than the Madeira hammock. 

There is a good news-room, provided with English and American papers, at 
Funchal, adjoining the beach ; subscription, $1 per month. There is also a good 
library of several thousand volumes in the next street, to which subscribers have 
access. 

As regards the climate of Madeira, there is little to be said that is not in its 
favor, provided the invalid goes there in the earlier stages of the disease. It is ben- 
eficial to consumptives, and those troubled with rheumatism, neuralgia, and Bright's 
disease, or general exhaustion of the system. The objections brought against it 
have been largely due to an attempt to prop later and less-known resorts at the 
expense of those of established reputation ; and also to the grumbling of two or 
three invalids of ungovernable temper, who, failing to receive the benefit which it 
was too late for them to receive anywhere, have reviled a resort that has done so 
much good to others. 

The rainy season is in winter, but the rainfall is very moderate. Protracted rains 
are unknown. Sometimes it rains hard in the mountains, and light momentary 
showers are liable to occur at all times of the year. The north side of the island is 
cooled by the trade-winds, and the south side is fanned by a mild sea-breeze, rising 
in the morning and going down with the sun. Clouds temper the heat of the sun 
during the day. 

The temperature is equable and moderate. Frost is unknown except at the 
summit of the mountains in winter. For eighteen years in succession the mean 
temperature at Funchal was 68°. It never goes below 62°, nor rises above 83° or 
84°, in that city, except once or twice in the year for two or three days, when the 
Leste, or Harmattan (the wind off the African desert), visits the island. It is a very 
hot, dry, weakening wind, but is rare and of short duration. At Sant' Anna, the 
mercury for nearly forty years did not go below 60° nor rise above 80°. One 
advantage of Madeira is the large variety of resorts within the limits of the island 
itself. Thus, when the heat is too high and steady at Funchal, one can at once 
reduce it by going to Santa Cruz or Sant' Anna, or going higher up. Three hundred 
feet above the water it is very rarely that the glass rises above 77° at Madeira. 



APPENDIX. 267 



TENERIFFE. 



The Liverpool and London boats, touching at Madeira, stop at Santa Cruz de 
Teneriffe also, both going and returning. The fare is 19 guineas; time, eight days. 
There is a Spanish steamer from Cadiz bimonthly ; and French steamers from 
Havre, St. Nazaire, and Marseilles touch there. The ships of Yates & Porterfield, 
of No. 115 Wall Street, New York, stop at Teneriffe occasionally ; fare, $70. 

Teneriffe is poorly provided with accommodations for invalids or tourists. The 
Hotel Durvan, at Santa Cruz, is well kept, ahd those rooms which face the street are 
pleasant. The table is good, but not remarkable, and the terms are moderate. But 
the visitor should, and doubtless would, prefer the north side of Teneriffe, especial- 
ly the Valley of Orotava. It is much to be regretted that better lodgings are not 
afforded there to strangers. Mrs. Turnbull's excellent boarding-house was admirably 
situated when it was at the Deheza di Ventoso. It is now nearer the water, at the 
Puerto d'Orotava, and the terms moderate ; but the accommodations are quite lim- 
ited. However, the increasing number of visitors will probably soon result in the 
providing of more facilities for their reception. Good houses are not difficult to 
find at a moderate rent, and the cost of living is not high. As the Valley of Oro- 
tava presents an ideal climate, and is easy of access, it is highly desirable that good 
lodging-houses should be established there without delay. Donkeys, patient and 
strong, are easily obtained at Orotava, and mules of doubtful character." At Santa 
Cruz carriages may be had on hire. 

The climate of Teneriffe is remarkable for two features beyond all other regions 
in the Northern hemisphere — equability and freedom from humidity. Regarding 
the former characteristic M. Belcastel says, "The thermometer tires one with its 
monotony. It appears to sleep, and one can count upon breathing, when he rises, 
the same air and temperature as the day before." At Orotava, about three hundred 
feet above the sea, for five weeks in May and June, I saw the mercury rise daily 
in the shade to 72° about 3 p.m. At night it fell to 68°. During that period I 
noticed no variation from those figures. The mean temperature of Santa Cruz in 
January, in the shade, is 65° by day and 67° by night; ditto, for July, 79° and 78° 
respectively. Belcastel records the mean temperature of Orotava in January as 
16.8° Reamur; ditto, for July, 24.7°. The mean annual temperature of Orotava 
is 20.2° Reamur, while that of Funchal is 18.8° ditto. The mean temperature is 
61.6° Fahrenheit for January, and 76.6° for July. Along the. coast of the island 
the dews are very slight, although heavy on the mountains. Rain falls at Santa 
Cruz and Orotava fifty to fifty -five days in the year, but somewhat oftener at 
Laguna. 

The mortality at Puerto d'Orotava is 1 in 60 ; at Realejo, in the -same valley, 
1 in 70. That of Rome is 1 in 32. Consumption, bronchitis, asthma, neuralgia, 
rheumatism, and Bright's disease are all capable of amelioration, if not always abso- 
lutely curable, by a residence at Orotava the year round, or at Santa Cruz during 



26S APPENDIX. 

the winter, provided the patient goes to Teneriffe before the malady has gone too 
far, and is resolved to use all due precautions and devote sufficient time to the 
rebuilding of his constitution. Dr. Perez, who has given his life to an enthusiastic 
study of the climatic character of Teneriffe, and has kept himself always au courante 
with the medical discoveries of the age, may be depended upon as a thoroughly 
capable physician. 

At Teneriffe and all islands with so mild a climate and such an abundance of 
fruits, the visitor, whether well or sick, must not forget that unless his habits are 
regular and his appetites under control, especially in the fruit season, he is liable to 
dysentery, inflammation of the bowels, or typhoid fever. 

NEWFOUNDLAND. 

Newfoundland occupies an anomalous position as regards communications. It 
may be reached generally by steamers running monthly in winter and bimonthly in 
summer from Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Allan Line between Liverpool, Halifax, 
and Baltimore touch at St. Johns every alternate week. The boats of the Crom- 
well Line leave New York for St. Johns every ten days from April to November, 
touching at Halifax. Fare, $35 ; round ticket, $65. Two boats also ply between 
Montreal and St. Johns during the summer. 

The Atlantic Hotel is a respectable house at St. Johns. Knight's Home is an 
excellently kept temperance boarding-house, with limited accommodations, but a 
good table. Mrs. Simms's lodging-house can also be recommended. At other 
places on the island accommodations are scarce and inferior. 

Newfoundland is rather a resort for sportsmen than for invalids, although t'he 
climate during the summer is dry, and free from the extremes of heat and cold; but 
the summer inclines to coolness. The thermometer does not fall as low in winter 
as on the neighboring continent. The highest degree of heat in July is 79°; the 
minimum is 40° ; the mean annual temperature is about 42.2°. 

There is good trout-fishing in the island streams during the summer, although 
the enthusiastic fisherman will have to travel some distance from St. Johns to find 
it in perfection. The deer migrate to the south of the island in winter, but during 
the summer months they are not infrequent in the northern woods of Newfound- 
land, as well as Micmac Indians, who are familiar with the haunts of the deer. 
Grouse are protected by the game-laws until the 20th of August. The seal-fisheries 
offer many attractions to those who do not mind roughing it in every sense of the 
term, and aiding in the slaughter of the 450,000 to 500,000 seals annually destroyed 
on the ice. Much novel and wild adventure can be found in this way, and it is 
easy to obtain a passage to the sealing grounds in one of the numerous sealers, 
which go out in March or April from St. Johns and Harbor Grace. 



APPENDIX. 269 



BERMUDA. 



This charming little group of miniature isles is reached in seventy to seventy- 
five hours from New York, by the steamers of the Quebec and Gulf Ports Steam- 
ship Company, which run bimonthly, except in May to June, when they ply weekly. 
The passage is more likely to be boisterous than otherwise, as it lies across the Gulf 
Stream, but no serious accidents have thus far been reported on this line. Steamers 
of this company also sail monthly from Halifax for the West Indies, and touch at 
Bermuda on the way. 

The accommodations for travellers at these islands are various, and generally of 
fair quality. The Hamilton Hotel, under the charge of Mrs. I. W. Dodge, is, among 
a number, the best hotel in Bermuda, pleasantly situated, overlooking the town of 
Hamilton. The terms are $2 50 to $3 per diem. There are several respectable, 
moderate-priced boarding-houses, of which Mrs. Turnbull's, called the Brunswick, 
at Hamilton, and Mr. Peniston's, at the Flatts, can be especially recommended. 

The climate of Bermuda has in times past been much noted, and for those who 
are strong and well it is charming, and far more agreeable than that of the neigh- 
boring continent. Bermuda is out of the range of the trade-winds, and is subject 
to sudden and violent fluctuations of temperature, with strong gales, attended with 
a heavy rainfall. It differs from the climate of the main-land not so much in kind 
as in degree, the extremes being less marked, and inclining toward heat rather than 
cold. Frost is recorded as having occurred there once — in 1840. In 1876, which 
is a fair average example of the Bermuda climate, the maximum rise of the ther- 
mometer in July was 94° in the shade. The lowest was 40.6°, in March. The 
mean for the year was 70.5°, and the range was 54.2°. The mean for the year 1874, 
at 9 a.m., was 72.33°. North and north-west winds prevail, and impart a rawness 
to the air in winter. Strange to say, very few houses have either grates or stoves, 
and the consumptive or rheumatic patient should always have one or the other 
whenever the thermometer descends below 60°. The bad drainage of the houses 
causes some typhoid fever ; but the authorities are waking up on this important 
subject. 

The humidity of Bermuda, especially after nightfall, exceeds anything in my 
experience, and is the most remarkable feature of the climate. It is so excessive 
that gloves and cigars, and other objects liable to mildew, are kept in air-tight glass- 
cases in the shops. Matches are so damp sometimes that they will not ignite, while 
cigars are so saturated with moisture that they will not burn. Some bromide of 
potassium, that I had tightly corked up in a bottle, was dissolved by the moisture 
it absorbed. The mean dew-point for 1875 was 63.3°, and the number of days 
in which rain fell was 157, the total rainfall being 44.66 inches. 

Such excessive dampness is, however, less noxious in a small sea-island than on 
the main-land, for it is charged with a certain degree of tonic saline qualities that 
somewhat neutralize its ill effects. At the same time, such humidity is, under all 



270 APPENDIX. 

circumstances, to be avoided if possible. For those in vigorous health, Bermuda 
offers a delightful but enervating climate. But invalids troubled with neuralgia and 
fever and ague may derive benefit from a residence there. But those who are suf- 
fering from pectoral or throat diseases cannot be recommended to go there, unless, 
perhaps, for the spring months. Bermuda is probably preferable to Massachusetts 
or» Canada for the consumptive; but when there are so many resorts superior to it 
for such complaints, it seems strange the consumptive should continue to go there.* 
But whoever does go to Bermuda for his health cannot be too strongly urged to 
use great caution in exposing himself to the night air at all seasons, and by no 
means to yield so far to the seductive mildness of the air, on landing, as to throw off 
his flannels. I have known some, by such ill-judged imprudence, to sacrifice all the 
good they might have gained, while others in comparative good health who have 
accompanied them have contracted incipient consumption by sitting exposed to the 
night air. In Bermuda no one can dispense with prudence in matters . of health ; 
but with prudence one may live there a long time, and finally, as the inhabitants 
say, vanish in a good old age, by simply drying up and being blown away. 

BELLEISLE-EN-MER. 

This island is reached by daily steamers from Auray. There is also a regular 
line of packets between Nantes and Lorient, which touch each way at Belleisle. 

The Hotel de France, at Le Palais, can be well recommended. It is on the 
chief street; the rooms are cheerful, and the table is good. Carriages and wagon- 
ettes can always be procured on moderate terms. 

The climate of Belleisle is more dry and sunny than that of Brittany, and trav- 
ellers or invalids wintering in Brittany for their health would find it to their advan- 
tage to spend a few weeks at Belleisle. The cheerfulness of the skies, the genial 
warmth of the sun, the mildness of the temperature, are of a nature to aid the 
neuralgic or consumptive patient in the recovery of health, although a whole season 
there would probably be monotonous to many. In May and June the air is balmy 
and delicious, and the sea-bathing excellent, while the number of visitors from 
abroad, and the animation attending the sardine fisheries, add greatly to the interest 
of the little island. 



* " The climate of Bermuda is relaxing, and, so far as I had an opportunity of observing, espe- 
cially ill adapted for persons afflicted with disease of the lungs, as nearly all the cases of phthisis I 
have seen ran their course rapidly." Such is the testimony of Surgeon-major P. H. E. Cross, in the 
sanitary report of his Excellency General Lefroy, the Governor of Bermuda. Such, also, seems to 
be the opinion of nearly all the physicians whose opinion and experience I asked, or whose views 
on the subject have appeared in the official reports. 



APPENDIX. 271 



PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 



This island is reached from Quebec by the boats of the Quebec and Gulf Steam- 
ship Company during the summer season. Navigation during the winter is closed 
by the ice. The International Line of steamers runs weekly, during the open sea- 
son, from Boston to Charlottetown, touching at Halifax and Pictou for a few hours. 
The fare is $10, exclusive of meals, which are $6 to $8 more. This is a very 
pleasant way of reaching the island. Those who dread the sea can go entirely 
by rail to Shediac, New Brunswick, and cross the Straits of Northumberland, only 
thirty miles, in a strong boat to Summerside ; or they can take the steamer running 
from Boston to St. John, New Brunswick, touching at Portland on the way, and go 
by rail from St. John to Shediac. Thus, there are many ways of reaching Prince 
Edward Island, all of them affording much interest and variety. The traveller 
would do well to go by one way and return by another. 

Prince Edward Island is traversed from one end to the other by a railroad, which 
is tapped by another short line from Charlottetown. The carriage roads are every- 
where excellent, and good horses and carriages are easily obtained. 

There are many hotels on the island ; Charlottetown swarms with them. They 
are generally of an indifferent character ; but Miss Rankin's, at Charlottetowm, can 
be very cordially recommended. It is commodious, and finely situated near the 
water's edge. Mr. M'Donald, who has leased the new hotel at Souris, is a most 
obliging landlord, and his table is well furnished with meats and game. The terms 
are moderate. The Seaside Hotel, at Rustico, is admirably situated on a bluff; and 
although the rooms are small, they are neat, cheerful, and clean, and the table is 
excellent. A bowling-alley and surf-bathing and fishing are close at hand. Terms, 
$2 to $2 50 per diem. The Island Park Hotel, at Summerside, is romantically 
situated on a small island in the harbor, about a mile from the town, which is 
reached by a steam-tender belonging to the hotel, or by crossing a ford at low 
water. It is the largest hotel in Prince Edw r ard Island", the rooms are spacious, 
and command lovely views over land and sea. They are well furnished, and the 
table is served in the American style, which will please those who prefer that 
method in a hotel. Bath-houses, billiard-rooms, a bowling-alley, and a croquet- 
ground are provided ; and the woods of the islet are intersected with winding paths 
containing rustic seats, and a carriage-road which encircles the shore. Good fishing 
and excellent yachting facilities also await the tourist sportsman. The terms are 
$2 50 per diem. At this place Prince Edward Island is so indented by bays that 
it is only three miles across from the southern to the northern coast of the island. 
Malpeque Bay, on the north side, is a large and interesting sheet of water. Board- 
ing-houses abound, or rather farm-houses, where one can find good, wholesome, 
but simple fare, including pure milk, fresh eggs, and fine beef. Board and lodging 
of this sort can be found for $5 to $6 per week. 

Prince Edward Island is wholly a summer resort, but as such it can be warmly 



272 APPENDIX. 

recommended to the invalid who is suffering from general nervous exhaustion, to all 
those who are prostrated by overwork, to all who would fortify their constitutions 
against the wear and tear of the age by sensible vacations, and to sportsmen who 
love boat-sailing, fishing, and plover, snipe, and duck shooting, with an occasional 
shot at a brown bear.* Those who are already greatly reduced by lung, or bron- 
chial, or asthmatic diseases would do better to seek a drier and warmer resort. 
Victims of hay fever may spend the summer at Prince Edward, and forget a tor- 
ment that never worried Job, or he might not have come down to later ages as a 
pattern of patience. 

The temperature during the summer is remarkable for its evenness and freedom 
from extremes or sudden changes. From the 1st of June to the middle of Septem- 
ber the weather is very delightful, the thermometer ranging from 60° to 75°. Light 
showers and an occasional heavy rain occur sometimes, but equability is the general 
character of the summer climate there. The south-west wind, which is generally a 
damp wind, loses its moisture in crossing Nova Scotia, and reaches Prince Edward 
Island dry and deliciously soft and balmy. 

ISLES OF SHOALS. 

These attractive little isles are within a few miles of Portsmouth, and are reached 
during the season by two steamers, one running twice a day to Appledore, and the 
other to Star Island. 

There is a large and very well-conducted hotel at Appledore, under the charge 
of the Messrs. Laighton, who have, by long experience, learned how to minister to 
the wants of their guests. On Star Island is the Oceanic Hotel, a spacious estab- 
lishment formerly kept by Mr. Poore, facing the cove formed by the cluster of isles 
between Appledore and Star Island. Its cool verandas are very inviting. The 
terms are those usual at American watering-places. 

The great advantage of the Isles of Shoals is that, more nearly than almost any 
other inhabited islands in the Western Atlantic, they realize the atmospheric condi- 
tions-found in a ship at sea; for while the general temperature greatly resembles 
that of the neighboring coast, the extremes are tempered by the sea air, the minute 
size of each of the islets giving to them an atmosphere fragrant and healthy with 
sea qualities ; and thus a residence on the islands has tonic effects very similar to 
those of a sea-voyage. For one trait these isles cannot be too highly recommended 
— the uncompromising and inflexible determination they show never to allow that 
strange, mysterious, summer foe, the hay fever, to make an entrance within their 
charmed limits. 

* For an account of the fish of those waters and the season to catch, see p. 201. 



APPENDIX. 273 



CAPE BRETON ISLAND. 



This island may be reached by rail from Halifax or New Brunswick, or by any 
of the routes mentioned for reaching Prince Edward Island, excepting the one via 
Shediac. The Boston and the Montreal boats touch at Port Hawkesbury, in the 
Straits of Canso, and passengers by rail are ferried across to the same town. From 
there stages proceed to Baddeck, and a steamer plies through the Bras d'Or to Syd- 
ney. The beauty of the latter route is exceptionally attractive. 

Baddeck and Sydney are the chief towns. Not very much can be said in favor 
of their hotels ; but the boarding establishmehts of Mrs. King and Miss Heams at 
Sydney are excellent. At Baddeck, the Telegraph House and the boarding-house 
of Mrs. Robert Jones can be recommended. The terms average $1 25 to $2 50 
per diem. But the sportsman who visits Cape Breton Island will not care to spend 
much time at the hotels. Camping out with a tent, or cruising in a boat, with rod, 
rifle, and sketch-book, he will disdain a roof, and enjoy the equable air of summer 
and early autumn in " roughing " style. One who takes a decked boat of four or 
five tons to Port Hawkesbury in the steamer from Halifax or Boston, and floats it 
through the St. Peter's Canal into the Bras d'Or, will find few sheets of water 
which offer more attractions for a three or four weeks' idle cruise from cove to 
cove, fishing, shooting, sketching, sailing, and cultivating the acquaintance of the 
Highlanders and the Micmacs. Or he can hire a small schooner or sail-boat at 
Sydney. The climate is very even during the sporting season ; and trout, salmon, 
snipe, woodcock, partridge, and plover abound. 

ISLE OF WIGHT. 

This favorite resort of pleasure-seekers and valetudinarians is so easily reached 
from the adjoining ports of Southampton and Portsmouth, by so many different 
railway and steamboat lines, that it is superfluous to go into further details on the 
subject. 

In the matter of excellent hotels and boarding-houses, no island is better pro- 
vided with the means for comfortably entertaining strangers or ministering to the 
comforts of invalids. They abound on every hand, and it will therefore suffice, 
among many, to mention favorably the Pier, the Kent, Sivier's, and the Belgrave, 
at Ryde. Charming cottages may also be obtained there and everywhere about the 
island for the season or for the year; but the terms depend so much on size or 
location, that the visitor intending to lease a cottage will have to look around for 
himself. At Brading, the Bugle Inn offers shelter to the passing tourist. At Sand- 
own, the chief hotels are the Sandown and the Star and Garter. At Shanklin, 
Hollier's, Daish's, and the Madeira can be recommended among a number of ex- 
cellent hotels and lodging-houses. The Clarendon is a tavern rather than a first- 
c^ass hotel. 

18 



274 APPENDIX. 

Ventnor, the choicest spot in the Isle of Wight, and the resort of invalids, 
abounds in hotels and boarding-houses of excellent character. The Crab and Lob- 
ster cannot be too highly recommended for the quiet order and home-like neatness 
and convenience of the comforts it offers to its guests. The Marine Hotel, on the 
cliff facing the ocean, is finely situated, and so, also, is the Esplanade Hotel. The 
terms at the hotels and lodging-houses of Ventnor are more moderate than the 
charges at Brighton or other sea-side resorts in England. The Albion and Plumb- 
ly's hotel, at Freshwater Grate, are excellent establishments. The Needles at Alum 
Bay, the Bugle at Newport, and the Gloucester at West Cowes, are capital hotels. 

As a watering-place for summer tourists and pleasure-seekers, the attractions of 
the Isle of Wight are too obvious to require either praise or comment. As a sani- 
tarium for invalids, especially those afflicted with pulmonary complaints, the advan- 
tages of this island are less certain, and have within a few years received quite as 
much credit as they deserve. The island, as a whole, possesses too much of the 
moist, raw, and variable temperature of England to make it a desirable resort for 
invalids. But the narrow, seven-mile-long strip of land called the Undercliff, on 
which Ventnor is situated, enjoys a climate that is more mild, dry, and steady than 
that of the rest of the island, facing the south - east, and sheltered from northerly 
winds by the high cliffs of Boniface Down and St. Catherine's Hill. Shanklin also 
rejoices in the softer climate of Ventnor, but to a less degree. The mean annual 
temperature of the Undercliff is 51° 72'. In winter it sometimes falls much lower, 
but, on the whole, it is not surpassed in mildness and equability by any other health 
resort of the Atlantic north of the Azores. "I have counted," says the late Dr. 
Martin, " nearly fifty species of garden flowers blooming in the borders in Decem- 
ber, and sweet-peas blossom on Christmas-day! The bee is on the wing when, in 
less favored districts of the island, a bitter frost parches all the meadows." This is 
the most favorable exhibit that can be allowed in praise of Ventnor. But, after 
every reservation, it may be frankly admitted that, for those who do not care or 
are unable to go to the trade-wind islands for their health, the Undercliff on the 
Isle of Wight offers most decided advantages and attractions which may enable 
them to protract for years a life that would otherwise be forfeited by a longer stay 
in the place where the disease was contracted. The Koyal National Hospital for 
Consumption, notwithstanding the unwieldiness of the name, is a most beneficent 
institution, situated in the outskirts of Ventnor, and intended, for very moderate 
terms, to give a home in that charming retreat to those invalids whose means are 
too slender to allow them to meet the expenses generally demanded by a foreign 
trip for health. To such this noble institution presents remarkable advantages. 



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